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LCA of Katerra’s Buildings

Research Purpose:

 

Analyze environmental impacts of Katerra’s CLT supply chain, as well as its Catalyst Building.

About

Katerra commissioned the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) and Center for International Trade in Forest Products (CINTRAFOR) at the University of Washington to analyze the environmental impacts of its CLT as well as the Catalyst Building in Spokane, Washington. The Catalyst is a 15,690 m2 (168,800 ft2), five-story office building that makes extensive use of CLT as a structural and design element. Jointly developed by Avista and McKinstry, Katerra largely designed and constructed the building, and used CLT produced by Katerra’s new factory.

Performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) on Katerra’s CLT will allow Katerra to explore opportunities for environmental impact reduction along their supply chain and improve their CLT production efficiency. Performing an LCA on the Catalyst Building will enable Katerra to better understand life cycle environmental impacts of mass timber buildings and identify opportunities to optimize the environmental performance of mid-rise CLT structures.  CINTRAFOR performed the LCA on Katerra’s CLT, and the CLF performed the LCA on the Catalyst Building.

Results

A summary document and full project report can be downloaded at the right.

Research Team

CLF

  • K. Simonen
  • M. Huang

CINTRAFOR

  • I. Ganguly
  • F. Pierobon
  • C.X. Chen

Acknowledgments

The research team would like to thank Hans-Erik Blomgren of Katerra for his role in initiating this research study and fostering collaboration between Katerra and the University of Washington. This work was funded by Katerra.

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