A life-cycle inventory (LCI) study is conducted of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) manufacturing. This gate-to-gate study includes all environmental impacts from the logs to produce either veneer or parallel laminated veneer (PLV) as input to the LVL process, through production of the LVL. The study includes all materials, fuels, and electricity inputs to produce LVL and related co-products and emissions. The input and site emissions data were collected through surveys of manufacturing facilities in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast regions of the U.S. SimaPro software, a program to conduct life-cycle inventory studies, is used to process the data and measure environmental impacts in terms of material use and emissions. The data are allocated on a mass basis to LVL based on their contribution to the mass sum of all product and co-products produced in manufacturing. All data are provided on a production unit basis of 1000 m3 and 1000 ft3 (MCF). In addition to the LCI data, carbon flow data are also given. These data are publicly available through reports, this publication, and the U.S. LCI Database Project. The data are useful forgenerating cradle-to-gate product LCIs when combined with the LCIs to produce logs as input to the plants and the transportation impacts to deliver materials. The data are useful as a benchmark for assessing process performance, for conducting life-cycle assessments of structural assemblies and the shell of residential and light commercial buildings.
