Sustainability performance of wood-based materials: A systemic assessment of lightweight materials for the mobility sector

The automotive industry faces growing pressure to reduce negative social and environmental impacts, e.g. through reducing the GHG emissions of their fleet and simultaneously increase the recyclability of its components. In... [ view full abstract ]

The automotive industry faces growing pressure to reduce negative social and environmental impacts, e.g. through reducing the GHG emissions of their fleet and simultaneously increase the recyclability of its components. In order to cope with these challenges the mobility sector has to be innovative by reducing fuel consumption through e.g. weight reduction. A proposed strategy, therefore, is the preferred use of lightweight materials, e.g. carbon-fiber composites, natural-fiber composites or any kind of wood-based material. The research project WoodC.A.R. (Wood Computer Aided Research) bridges the gap between the bioeconomy strategy and the mobility industry by introducing wood-based materials into the automotive industry. Substituting conventional with bio-based materials in certain applications will not necessarily lead to a reduction of negative social and environmental impacts. Various studies already deal with possible sustainability impacts by comparing different lightweight-materials, e.g. aluminum compared to steel is more energy intense in the production, and natural-fiber composites are cheaper and often available regionally compared to glass or carbon fiber composites. The recyclability of composites is more complex as for steel or aluminum. Wood-based components are promising to be more recyclable than composites and less energy intensive than steel or aluminum. However, existing studies are lacking concerning two points, they are focusing mostly on a narrow sense on a corporate level by blending out systemic impacts and an overview of current used lightweight-materials is missing. It is essential to assess the sustainability performance of bio-based materials compared to conventional materials by considering impacts on a whole system to support decision-making in the automotive industry. A whole system in the present study includes the company, market, society and nature. This study aims to answer the following research question: How is the sustainability performance of wood-based materials compared to other bio-based and conventional materials from a systemic perspective? Hence, the present paper aims to provide an overview of the environmental performance of currently used lightweight materials and compares the sustainability performance of bio-based and conventional lightweight materials in a systemic way. For the assessment, a framework based on Zimek & Baumgartner (2017) is used which contains three main criteria, the range of impacts, a time-aspect and the principles for sustainable development of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD).This assessment framework contains a set of questions, which will be answered by a comprehensive literature review and interviews with experts from the automotive industry. The outcome and results of the present study help to clarify which materials perform better when essential sustainability criteria are integrated. These results give important insights for decision making in the automotive industry, which is an essential step to cope with regulation and targets in the future.