Candida antarctica lipase (CALB) has been successfully used as catalyst for copolymerization of dialkyl diester with diol and lactone to form aliphatic polyesters. The polymerization reactions were performed using a two stage process: first stage oligomerization under low vacuum followed by second stage polymerization under high vacuum. Use of the two-stage process is required to obtain products with high molecular weights at high yields for the following reasons: (i) the first stage reaction ensures that the monomer loss via evaporation is minimized to maintain 1:1 diester to diol stoichiometric ratio, and the monomers are converted to nonvolatile oligomers; (ii) use of high vacuum during the second stage accelerates equilibrium transesterification reactions to transform the oligomers to high molecular weight polymers. Thus, terpolymers of omega-pentadecalactone (PDL), diethyl succinate (DES), and 1,4-butanediol (BD) with a M-w of whole product (nonfractionated) up to 77000 and M-w/M-n between 1.7 and 4.0 were synthesized in high yields (e.g., 95% isolated yield). A desirable reaction temperature for the copolymerizations was found to be around 95 degrees C. At 1:1:1 PDL/DES/BD monomer molar ratio, the resultant terpolymers contained equal moles of PDL, succinate, and butylene repeat units in the polymer chains. H-1 and C-13 NMR analyses were used to determine the polyester microstructures. The synthesized PDL-DES-BD terpolymers possessed near random structures with all possible combinations of PDL, succinate, and butylene units via ester linkages in the polymer backbone. Furthermore, thermal stability and crystallinity of a pure PDL-DES-BD terpolymer with 1: 1: 1 PDL to succinate to butylene unit ratio and M-w of 85400 were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The copolyester was found to be a semicrystalline material with a T-g of -34 degrees C and a T-m of 64 degrees C, which degrades in a single weight loss step centered at T-max = 408 degrees C.