An introduction to life cycle assessment (LCA) of painted timber components

Throughout the 1990s a significant change in the perception of environmenta l problems has been taking place. This has led to a whole environment and w hole life-cycle perspective. The paper reviews the current state of develop ment of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and presents examples, from the authors ' case studies on timber products to illustrate how the technique addresses and highlights several problems in environmental impact assessment. The pa rticular case of painted timber window frames is discussed.