Toward Carbon Neutral Architecture: The Potential of Timber Building System for Zero CO₂e Emissions.

The extreme events of recent years, due to climate change and significant greenhouse gas emissions, have prompted the European Union to develop the energy transition at an accelerating pace, with special emphasis on the construction industry. Scientific attention, therefore, is focused on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-sions, at all stages of the building system life cycle. With a view to the utopian threshold of total emission zeroing (deadline of 2050), the wood building system, due to the material's known chemical-physical property of natural carbon storage, is a concrete solution in the direction of reducing building system emissions. The research addresses aspects of the LCA approach, with reference to the “Cradle to Grave" phase of timber buildings, in order to assess the emissions associated with the production and construction phases. Emissions associated with different resi-dential types ('multi-storey'and'townhouses') are analyzed and compared, with reference to both Italian and European regulations. The calculation implementation was carried out through the use of One Click LCA software. The objective of the study is to provide design guidelines, with reference to timber solutions, in terms of typological and technological characteristics, tending to zero emissions.