David:
Thoughtful suggestions without question.
It’s evident to me that LCA is not going to be an end-all solution to forestry practices stewardship. It is not the right forum for many of the topics that are being debated within different parts of this Summit.
Drilling down on your groups comment #4 about “LCA not yet being perfect,” here is a dilemma from the “demand side” perspective of how the design community is trying to use LCA carbon data.
…tearing down an existing functional building and re-building it the same but with “carbon negative” mass timber can be shown to be more carbon advantageous than re-use of the original building. Yet, there is nearly an unlimited demand globally for more buildings and material.
Giving timber a “carbon negative or carbon neutral” value within LCA calculations encourages against conservation of limited resources or material optimization. The more material used, the better the LCA results. Yet, there is nearly an unlimited demand globally for more buildings and material.
Progress on how this dilemma gets resolved would be very useful to moving forward.