Life cycle launch for timber windows
14th March 2017

The world’s first life cycle assessments calculated through the new BRE LINA tool were unveiled at Ecobuild last week, with two timber windows – the Stormsure Timber Casement Window by JELD-WEN and the Conservation Casement Window by Mumford and Wood –the first products to receive LINA assessments.

Speakers at the launch (pictured left to right) included Dr Shamir Ghumra, director at the BRE Centre for Sustainable Products, Beatrix Richards, head of corporate stewardship (sustainable commodities) at WWF-UK, and BWF Chief Executive Iain McIlwee.

The British Woodworking Federation says it is the first customer worldwide for BRE LINA: “This allows the BWF to produce life cycle assessment results for its members’ products which are then uploaded into the BRE Hub so that a third party verified BRE Global Environmental Performance Declaration (EPD) can be produced.

“The results can also inform assessments for ISO 14001, EN 15804 (the European standard for the sustainability of construction products) and other environmental management systems, and can feed into BIM (Building Information Modelling).”

Iain McIlwee, chief executive of the BWF, said: “This is timber leading the debate once again. LINA is proving to be a powerful calculator which now allows us at the BWF to build on the early work of Wood for Good and the Wood Window Alliance to produce bespoke life cycle assessments for our members’ products.

“This is a major breakthrough in proving categorically timber’s superior environmental sustainability credentials. The simple approach and science behind this environmental tool unravels many of the complexity excuses made by competing materials about why embodied carbon cannot be taken into consideration. It revolutionises the way EPDs can be produced and takes us one step closer to these declarations hitting the mainstream.” 

http://www.bwf.org.uk/toolkit/environmental-waste-management/what-is-a-life-cycle-assessment