The objective of this project was to give information on how to take into account CO2 sequestrated in the forest in calculation of carbon footprint of forest products. This information will help the industry sector's Research and Development to optimize the use of biomass proactively in terms of EU's climate change policy. The project also increased knowledge on fiber based product's carbon economy through several case studies that furthermore give scientifically based results to be used in environmental communication to the authorities and customers. This project was focused on environmental sustainability and therefore the economic and social impacts are not included in the project scope. The more specific project objectives were as follows:
- Modeling biogenic carbon balances in the forest and linking them to the carbon balance calculations in the fiber-based product's value chain
- Building a harmonized calculation procedure for energy and carbon balance from forest to the end-use, taking into account the principles and definitions from carbon footprint ISO standardization work
- Find out the environmentally sustainable biomass (wood fiber) sources for bio-energy production