Harvested wood products' full lifecycle assessment for sustainable construction: A Systemised review

Harvested wood products (HWPs) are significant in sustainable construction because they provide renewable, low-carbon material alternatives. Through climate change mitigation, renewable resource utilization, and carbon sequestration, HWPs help reduce the environmental footprints of buildings. Since the construction industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, exploring sustainable building materials like HWPs is imperative. This paper aims to address the gap in addressing the full lifecycle assessment of HWPs in construction by conducting a comprehensive review that incorporates economic, environmental, social, and spatial dimensions. The literature reveals that current assessments remain fragmented, often overlooking the broader timber lifecycle and its interconnected sustainability implications. To address this, the review suggests a more integrated lifecycle approach, explicitly including preharvest land use changes and post-use carbon and economic dynamics, which are often missing in traditional evaluations. By combining evidence from various fields, this study builds a structured understanding of how HWPs serve as long-term climate mitigation tools, not only as renewable material options but also as active parts of circular bioeconomy strategies. This systemized review evaluates HWPs across all lifecycle stages, preharvest (as a preproduction land use decision), production, and post-use, highlighting the need for a more integrated sustainability framework. Key findings underscore the importance of applying a lifecycle approach to better understand how early land-use decisions, market incentives, and end-of-life practices interact to shape carbon outcomes and economic returns. Ultimately, this review advances a more coherent and actionable understanding of HWPs as drivers of circular and climate-resilient construction. • Improved the gap of the study and enhanced the flow of ideas in the introduction. • Revised the methodology and included the PRISMA diagram to enhance the reproducibility of our study. • Enhance the discussion of the manuscript by highlighting our contribution to previous studies. • Revised the conclusion section of the manuscript. • Added a supplemental table for the clarity of the manuscript.