” Energy Consumption of Imported Timber
Timber is an energy-efficient material which requires small amount of energy in its production process. The energy consumption is 1/350th of that of steel and 1/1470th of that of aluminum in CO2 emission basis. It is easily assumed, however, that when timber is imported from far side of the planet, its energy consumption gets extremely big. Following is an estimation of CO2 emission of imported timbers, place by place, in transportation process.
CO2 Discharge in Production Process of Construction Materials
Okuma, M. (2003) gPreservation of Global Environment and Wood Utilizationg
CO2 Discharged on Timber Transportation to the Japanese Market and Timber Production Process
The Woodmiles Forum (2004)
Timber from Europe, in calculation, emits 298kg of CO2. It is true that timber is an eco-friendly material. But when transported from very far, it is no longer so---its energy consumption during transportation accounts for 5.4times as much as that of in production process. Moreover, this figure is calculated out using only CO2 conversion factors of 5 of the main transportation channels, namely, road, rail, coastal shipping, oceangoing bulk shipping (roundwood), and oceangoing container shipping (sawntimber): it leads to an assumption that the figure could get some times bigger, considering the energy loss and/or insufficiency of transportation methods depending on conditions.
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Background of Woodmiles
Global environment issues and timber@
