Maja Žigart Verlić (2025): Revisiting Timber Buildings: A Critical Environmental Assessment of Residential Multi-Storey Buildings, 1st reviewer: Brian Cody, 2nd reviewer: Nataša Ćuković Ignjatović
As global building stock is projected to double by 2060, sustainable construction has become essential to achieving the European Union’s 2050 climate neutrality target. This dissertation examines the environmental impacts of building materials by comparing reinforced concrete (RC), brick, cross-laminated timber (CLT), and lightweight timber frame (TF) systems in Slovenian multistory residential buildings. Static and dynamic life cycle assessments (LCA) are used in combination with forest cycle modeling to evaluate the temporal aspects of carbon sequestration and emissions resulting from forest growth, timber harvesting, and decomposition.
The findings indicate that timber buildings—particularly those constructed with CLT and TF—exhibit lower environmental impacts than RC and brick alternatives. This advantage is primarily due to timber’s carbon sequestration capacity. At the same time, it is clear that the environmental benefits of timber construction are highly sensitive to modeling choices related to biogenic carbon and forest management practices. Dynamic life cycle assessments provide a more accurate representation of environmental impacts than static ones, which do not take temporal aspects into account and inadequately reflect the climate performance of timber buildings. The integration of dynamic LCA into environmental impact assessments is all the more necessary for the precise evaluation of the sustainability advantages of timber buildings. Policy frameworks and building assessment systems must be revised to account for the temporal variability of biogenic carbon. Therefore, the study advocates for strengthening research into sustainable construction: if different forest management practices, climate conditions, and building designs are coordinated, a contribution to achieving global sustainability goals in the construction sector can be made.
