Carbon footprint as an environmental indicator for wood flooring industry in China

With the global consensus on minimizing the increasing climate change, the carbon footprint of wood flooring has garnered considerable interest from consumers and building developers. However, research on the carbon footprint of wood flooring is rarely reported, especially the comparative analyses of different kinds of wood flooring. Thus, this study comparatively analyzed the cradle-to-gate carbon footprints of four common kinds of wood flooring, namely laminated flooring (LF), three-layer engineered wood flooring (three-layer EWF), multi-layer engineered wood flooring (multi-layer EWF), and solid wood flooring (SWF) according to the PAS 2050 standard. In addition, this study explored the impact of allocation methods on carbon footprints and the carbon emission reduction potential. The carbon footprints of wood flooring were ranked in the following ascending order: SWF at -8.5 kg CO2 e/m2, three-layer EWF at -1.68 kg CO2 e/ m2, multi-layer EWF at 0.19 kg CO2 e/m2, and LF at 4.83 kg CO2 e/m2. The production stage of raw materials generated the highest carbon emissions, accounting for about 46.4-72.1 %. The electricity consumption during the flooring production stage was one of the main sources of carbon emissions, accounting for 8.4-33 %. The allocation method significantly impacted the carbon footprint of wood flooring. The utilization of alternative electricity, including wind power, hydropower, biomass power, and photovoltaic power, is a promising pathway towards reducing emissions. This study deepens our understanding of the life cycle carbon emissions and biogenic carbon storage of various kinds of wood flooring and highlights the importance of allocation method selection.