The paper reports the results of a life-cycle study of a pole made of pine wood for outdoor use which was exposed to three treatments aimed to counteract the bio-degradation of wood: impregnation, thermal treatment and acetylation (chemical modification). Impregnation is the most common treatment used to improve the durability of wood and the other two can be considered as “alternatives” not involving the use of biocides which can be potentially dangerous for the human beings. Nevertheless the overall environmental performance of such treatments has been hardly investigated, even if this aspect can be critical in order to select the most appropriate technology. In the specific case, a comparison of the three treatments was performed by means of the assessment of the impacts determined during the process to obtain finished products of comparable quality.
