I’m trying to do a quick estimate on the embodied carbon impacts of interior finishes like cabinets, and carbon savings of alternatives. Does anyone happen to have a good resource on how the cabinet market is split up, by material? As in, what percentage of cabinet production or procurement is hardwood versus MDF, etc.?
Some starting points that have been helpful:
The USFS/USDA indicates that 13 million board feet of wood was used for cabinets but no further breakdown.
The Healthier Materials Lab provided a helpful overview on different compositions of products, which was a great starting point.
Hi Lindsay, you might have to triangulate shipment and sales stats from the KCMA (Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturer’s Association), NKBA (National Kitchen and Bath Association), the Composite Panel Association, and NHLA (National Hardwood Lumber Association) and other similar organizations.
Parsing composite wood-based sales against solid wood is a challenge because these organizations tend to operate in their on silos. And the fact that the ultimate uses of these materials doesn’t always filter up through distribution adds to the challenge.
On the other hand, since we know wood materials sequester carbon amounting to 50% of their dry weight, it’s not hard to do some basic math. Recently the KCMA estimated that the average North American kitchen is storing 600 lbs. of naturally captured carbon.