Dynamic LCA

Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (Dynamic LCA) is gaining traction in the timber construction sector as a powerful tool to evaluate environmental impacts more accurately over time. Here's how it's being applied and why it matters:

🌲 Why Timber Construction Benefits from Dynamic LCA

Timber is a biogenic material, meaning it stores carbon during its growth. This makes its environmental profile highly time-sensitive, especially when considering:

• Carbon sequestration and release over decades

• Forest regrowth cycles

• Material deterioration and maintenance needs

Dynamic LCA captures these temporal dynamics, offering a more realistic picture than static LCA.

🏢 Case Study: Timber High-Rise Building (RE2020 Regulation – France)

A study from KTH Royal Institute of Technology applied Dynamic LCA to a 100-meter timber high-rise:

• Compared timber vs. concrete structures under French RE2020 carbon regulations

• Found timber had significantly lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) in both static and dynamic models

• Dynamic LCA widened the gap, showing timber’s long-term climate advantage

• Included biogenic carbon storage and fire safety adaptations in the life cycle inventory

🌍 Structural Deterioration & Seismic Events

Another study from Imperial College London modeled cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings under seismic stress:

• Used a stochastic dynamic LCA to account for deterioration and earthquake damage

• Assessed repair/replacement impacts over time

• Showed that neglecting deterioration leads to underestimated emissions

• Reinforced the need for time-sensitive modeling in timber structures

🧰 BIM-LCA Integration

The BIM-LCA Erasmus+ project offers a tutorial on:

• Comparing timber vs. concrete buildings using LCA

• Highlighting timber’s low embodied energy and carbon sequestration

• Teaching students to model timber buildings with dynamic environmental data

🔑 Key Takeaways