The long life span of products benefits the climate

Wood, paper and paperboard products as well as fibre-based packaging help to reduce the use of non-renewable raw materials and save natural resources for future generations.

Products can be recycled and used several times, which substantially enhances the use of raw material. At the end of their life span, products and biomass unsuitable for refining can be utilized in renewable energy production.

Forest biomass, the by-products of the industry and wood unsuited to refining are used to produce over 70 per cent of renewable energy used in Finland. The forest industry is the most significant producer of renewable energy in Finland. A part of the heat that is produced as a by-product of the manufacturing process is also used as district heating into surrounding society’s benefit.

New opportunities

The diverse use of wood provides ecologically friendly solutions to building, packing, furnishing and energy production. Almost anything that can be manufactured from oil can also be manufactured from wood. There are still many uses for wood that have yet to be discovered.

The forest industry creates tomorrow’s business opportunities from bioenergy and biochemicals as well as by combining wood to other materials. With the help of information technology, intelligent paper and packaging products as well as building materials are being developed.

Nanotechnology enables completely new features for current products. Alongside these, new applications with links to the food and pharmaceutical industry are created.

In the field of the forest industry there is know-how and practical infrastructure and logistics solutions for the cost-efficient utilisation of biomass. Due to this, the new generation biofuels, bioplastics and biochemicals refined from forest biomass promote sustainable production and consumption in the future. These are main factors in Finland’s pursuit of the leadership role in bioeconomy.