Sustainability assessment of value chains

Modern wood product technology allows for the design of even high-rise buildings which are durable and pass strict fire regulations. In practice, however, the uptake of wood construction is very limited. A partial explanation is that the availability of sustainability assessments pertaining to renewable raw material value chains is limited, and where existing, are rarely comprehensive; mostly focusing on specific products and often lack benchmarking against use of non-renewable materials. These shortcomings will be addressed in the benchmarking method development to compare wood-based with non-renewable value chains in ToSIA. For this purpose, a set of universal indicators (for all value chains) and generic non-renewable reference chains will be developed. The benchmarking method will be tested in 5 case studies in Europe and Russia spanning different decision making contexts. A European wide projection on the substitution potential in the construction sector and its effects on the bioeconomy will be carried out, as well as intense stakeholder interaction and capacity building in partner countries.