The USA Wood Promotion Network (WPN) is to review its operations and present the industry with strategy options for the future.
WPN believes a number of the challenges on which the original strategy was based have changed so will concentrate its research on the following objectives:
- To understand the most significant pressures and opportunities facing wood product use in home construction, home finishing and light commercial construction, and to identify or confirm strategies to rebuff pressures and seize opportunities
- To understand perceptions of the environmental sustainability of wood and therefore forestry in Canada and the US.
WPN’s original business case was prepared in 2000 based on research undertaken in 1999 and 2000. The resulting plan was a three to five year effort to reduce the risk of wood products being substituted by other materials because of product or environmental concerns.
That aim remains, but WPN is also concerned to grow the market for wood products. It says opportunities to increase demand in both North American and offshore markets are considerable. Existing programmes in Canada and the US have demonstrated that demand can be stimulated and that code changes and product innovation represent significant growth opportunities. The concept of “green building” also presents an opportunity to capitalise.
WPN is to investigate the size of each opportunity and the related costs to achieve them before developing its tactical plan for the future.
