Methodological challenges in wood carbon Accounting: A maritime flooring case study

The accurate quantification of carbon flows in wood-based products represents a methodological challenge in environmental assessment, with significant implications for climate policy and sustainable material selection across multiple sectors. This study critically addresses the implications of the 0/0 (carbon neutrality) and −1/+1 (dynamic carbon accounting) approaches in wood carbon accounting, through a comprehensive comparative analysis, using a detailed case study of teak wooden flooring versus fossil-based resin flooring in maritime applications. The research utilizes high-quality primary data, encompassing teak production in Indonesia, ocean transport, use and disposal in European markets, enabling a comprehensive site-specific analysis of environmental impacts across different regions. The study evaluates both ISO 14067:2018 and IPCC-based methodologies for long-term scenarios, with particular emphasis on end-of-life treatment differences between waste-to-energy (WtE) and landfilling for both treated and untreated wood products. Scenarios were modelled to cover the widest possible range of cases, including parameters that varies according to product type and waste legislation in different European countries. The geographical disaggregation of impacts reveals significant regional variations, with production impacts concentrated in Indonesia, transport impacts distributed across oceanic routes. Temporal analysis emphasizes the critical importance of accounting for timing in carbon sequestration and release cycles, particularly in the context of international climate commitments such as the Paris Agreement. The research demonstrates that methodological choices in carbon accounting can fundamentally alter environmental impact conclusions, with implications extending from product-level assessments to policy-level decisions regarding sustainable material promotion. • Teak flooring has a lower impact than resin regarding the most impactful categories. • 100 years and long-term scenarios were studied for wood emissions in landfilling. • Study shows climate impacts variability due to different carbon accounting methods. • Temporal dynamics of carbon sequestration and release were analyzed. • The geographical distribution of the most impacting local categories is analyzed.