The first national rigorous Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of representative Australian forest and wood products and processes was developed to provide quantitative information on sustainability imperatives which are starting to drive business decisions and government policies, particularly those relating to wood products. In devising solutions, it is required to assess how much energy, water or chemical has gone into manufacturing a product, and what greenhouse gas emissions or other emissions to the environment have been released in the process. The Life Cycle Inventory was created to allow the environmental impacts of the production of common engineered timber products and systems to be quantified and evaluated from cradle-to-gate. The Life Cycle Inventory database covers five categories: softwood
plantation and hardwood native forests; softwood framing and hardwood timbers; veneer, plywood and LVL; particleboard and MDF; and glulam and engineered I-beams.

TDJ 17/4