Overview
ISO/TR 25078:2025 is a Technical Report from ISO that explains how to identify and calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) displacement potential for wood and wood‑based products. It provides worked examples, background literature and practical guidance to support the calculations set out in ISO 13391-1 and ISO 13391-3. The report helps practitioners quantify displacement factors - the avoided GHG emissions when wood-based products displace alternative materials or technologies - and discusses considerations for applying those factors in a broader economic and temporal context.
Key technical topics and requirements
- Displacement factor calculation: Guidance aligned with ISO 13391‑3 on expressing displacement as t CO2e/t CO2e (avoided emissions per unit of biogenic carbon) and on required inputs (value‑chain emissions for wood‑based and alternative products).
- Establishing alternative products: Best practices for defining the functional unit and ensuring functional equivalence (system perspective rather than single-material comparison).
- Life cycle scope and system boundaries: Recommendations on cradle‑to‑grave vs cradle‑to‑gate approaches and the need for equivalent boundaries for fair comparison.
- Data sources and calculation approaches: Types of data and LCA approaches suitable for deriving value‑chain emissions, including use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) when declared units and conditions match.
- Worked examples: Concrete case studies included in the report - e.g., wooden pallet vs plastic pallet, wood‑based bioenergy displacing fossil energy, CLT floor vs concrete floor, beverage packaging, and building structures - illustrating practical calculation steps and data sources.
- Factors affecting realization of displacement potential: Market effects, time dimension, biases from product system choice, geography and grid mix, and other real‑world influences on whether modeled displacement is realized.
- Tier 1 factors and literature review: Summary examples of tier 1 displacement factors for product categories and a bibliography to support further analysis.
Practical applications and intended users
ISO/TR 25078:2025 is useful for:
- LCA practitioners and sustainability consultants calculating GHG impacts and displacement potential
- Wood‑product manufacturers preparing product declarations and sustainability claims
- Architects, structural engineers and builders comparing material alternatives (e.g., CLT vs concrete)
- Policymakers and public procurement teams assessing low‑carbon material options
- Researchers modeling sectoral or economy‑wide impacts of increased wood use
The report supports robust, transparent displacement potential estimates used in EPDs, climate reporting, policy analysis and product selection.
Related standards
- ISO 13391‑1:2025 - Framework for value chain GHG calculations for wood products
- ISO 13391‑3:2025 - Displacement of greenhouse gas emissions (calculation rules)
- ISO 14040 / ISO 14025 - LCA and EPD principles referenced for functional units and comparability
Keywords: ISO TR 25078:2025, displacement potential, displacement factors, wood-based products, greenhouse gas, LCA, EPD, ISO 13391, carbon dioxide equivalents.
Open preview (PDF)Wood and wood-based products — Examples of calculating displacement potentials for wood-based products and considerations for further analyses
