The 12 sheets for Life Cycle Impact Assessments (LCIA) are now available in English

RESULTS OF THE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT INVENTORIES (LCIA) OF PRODUCTS FROM AFRICA

In 2022, the ATIBT carried out 12 life cycle inventories (LCI) for the main wood products from the Congo Basin manufactured by its certified forest manager members.

To simplify the reading of the results, the ATIBT has designed 12 sheets that offer a simplified reading of the results of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of certified wood products from the Congo Basin available in a port on the West African coast with 2 key indicators: the Global Warming indicator and the Quantity of Biogenic Carbon Stored. The number one asset of tropical woods is their capacity to store carbon, the denser the wood the more carbon it stores.

DOWNLOAD THE 12 SHEETS

The results of the life cycle inventories were obtained from data collected over 3 years (2018 - 2019 - 2020) from 4 ATIBT member companies:

INTERHOLCO (Republic of Congo)
PALLISCO CIFM (Cameroon)
PRECIOUS WOOD (Gabon)
ROUGIER (Gabon)

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study was carried out in accordance with ISO 14 040/44 and NF EN 15 804+A2, and was critically reviewed by an external third party. The LCIA’s were established in a specific context, aiming to come as close as possible to compliance with the NF EN 15804+A2 standard, but according to a partial perimeter: from the forestry operation to the shipping port. The completion of these LCIAs is a preparatory and indispensable work for the elaboration of future FDES / EPDs of certified wood products from the Congo Basin. These will include modules C and D (product use and end of life).

These EICVs are intended to be distributed to :

to the clients of certified managers who are members of the ATIBT so that they can build their own individual EPDs
to wood trade federations so that they can build collective EPDs

Who are the "rightful claimants" of these LCIAs?

All ATIBT member companies that produce wood products made from Congo Basin wood from sustainably managed forests (certified wood). Customers of ATIBT members will be able to use these LCIAs to make their environmental declaration (EPD / EHSF or other LCA).

It should be noted that these sheets can also be used by companies managing certified sustainably managed forests (FSC / PAFC) that are not members of the ATIBT. A written request for authorisation must be sent to the ATIBT (info@atibt.org)

You can download the EICV directly from the ATIBT website

THE DRYADES PROJECT AT THE ORIGIN OF THESE 12 SHEETS

In 2021, the ATIBT and its partners launched the "Dryades" project, which aims to promote tropical wood products in the construction sector by providing Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) from Africa for a range of eco-certified products in the Congo Basin, as well as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Environmental and Health Data Sheets (FDES).

As a reminder, in France, according to the RE 2020 regulation, construction products that do not have FDES (Environmental and Health Declaration Sheet) will be given penalizing environmental data by default (multiplied by a factor of 3 to 10). At the European level, as part of the strengthening of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), the European Commission has drafted a delegated act to make environmental declarations compulsory as part of the CE marking of construction products. In addition, there is a structuring trend towards products with EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) in the European construction market.

Esteana has been mainly solicited for the realization of the FDES sheets on the basis of the data which were provided by the companies. This research department is made up of specialists in construction and the environment, and works for construction professionals and institutions in France and Europe

The life cycle analysis project is led by the ATIBT and is mainly financed by the Programme de Promotion de l'Exploitation Certifiée des Forêts (PPECF), and by member companies of the ATIBT and federations such as Le Commerce du Bois (LCB)

PRE-PRODUCTS AND PRODUCTS COVERED BY THE DRYADES LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT PROJECT

Wooden pre-products from the Congo Basin concerned by the collective LCA: logs, undried sawn timber, dried sawn timber, hydraulic wood, profiles (decking, panelling, wainscoting), glued laminated timber, veneers, plywood
Wooden construction products from the Congo Basin concerned by the collective FDES and EPD: decking, cladding and joinery elements

PROJECT TIMETABLE :

02/02/2021 : Launch of the project with the collection of data for the life cycle indicators (LCI) of certified Congo Basin wood pre-products (participants in the data collection: certified companies in the Congo Basin members of the ATIBT)
May 2022: end of data collection
June 2022: external verification of Life Cycle Inventories (LCI)
01/09/2022: delivery of the 12 LCIs
01/11/2022: publication of the multi-criteria analysis of the Tali, Oak and Bamboo composite based on the LCI results
01/12/2022: creation of the communication sheets for the 12 LCIs and publication on the ATIBT website
01/01/2023: submission for verification of the 3 collective EDSs and 3 EPDs for FSC/PEFC certified wood products from the Congo Basin
01/04/2023: registration of the 3 ESDSs and 3 EPDs on the INIES and ECOPLATEFORM database

FOLLOW-UP TO THE PROJECT

Link with European federations to make collective EPDs
Strategic studies on the performance (LCA) of certified wood products from the Congo Basin, and comparison with other materials
Replicate the project in other tropical basins (Amazon, SE Asia)

For more information, please read or watch: