Pluridimensional sustainability analysis of wooden building products production chain

Author(s)

Andrea Naguissa Yuba

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Carlos. , gráficos, ilustrações, mapas, tabelas.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2005-01-12

Examining board members

Akemi Ino; Evaldo Luiz Gaeta Espindola; Adriana Maria Nolasco; Miguel Aloysio Sattler; Ioshiaqui Shimbo

• Advisor: Akemi Ino
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Indexed in: Banco de Dados Bibliográficos da USP-DEDALUS; Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações - USP
• Location: Universidade de São Paulo. Biblioteca da Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos; TESE-EESC; Y94a

Abstract

The timber housing production chain from managed forests has characteristics that can contribute to determine a more sustainable context, but it depends on an approach that overcomes the preponderance of environmental issues, including the social, economic, politics and cultural ones, in an integrated way. To deal with the whole production chain is an opportunity to include very complex levels of interactions among sustainability dimensions and different types of relationships (light and strong ones), in the multiplicity of analysis dimensions that can be studied. In this way, the main purpose of this study is to explore and systematize the sustainability issues dynamics complexity of this production chain aiming to understand the process of gains and losses of sustainability. The study reaches the definition and the limits of the context, by disentangling and characterizing this production chain. It showed the technical emphasis of many studies, which are closely separated in the processes, and the absence of a life cycle perspective, inherent to sustainability. So, aiming to establish the relationship between sustainability and the production chain, the principles and strategies of sustainable construction were analyzed and linked to each of the processes of the production chain. It allowed seeing that there are many other dimensions principles, but they are far less detailed than the environmental issues. The same difference can be found between initial processes (use of resources and production) and ending ones (use and disassembling). The analysis of the sustainability evaluation methods showed that sustainability pluridimensionality and its complexity is being partially approached and operationalized to offer a simplified and static vision, damaging the production of knowledge about sustainability gains and losses. The bigger lack is a transparent approach of the system dynamics. So, the links idea of production chain concept is particularly suitable to deal with sustainability issues. Deriving them to the production chain, it is showed the interrelationships of the processes in the various dimensions. It was possible to understand the interactions net of the chain issues, how each issue affects others, the sustainability gains and losses in one dimension and among dimensions and how each action can affect the way to sustainability. It allows understanding the better and the worst links, although it is determined by the spatial scale. The items diversity to be considered in sustainability analysis of this production chain shows that even though the links can be applied in different contexts, its analysis is strictly related to one specific area and time (AU)