While no-one should ever use the phrase ‘blue sky thinking’ (except in describing what you do lying on a Mediterranean beach), it’s obviously an advantage for business to project what the future might hold and how to prepare for it. The trouble is few companies have the luxury of projecting much beyond the next set of results.
That’s why Medite’s 2016 Forum is potentially such a valuable initiative. The idea is to solicit the views of representatives of the international wood panels and timber industries, their customers, research and trade bodies, technologists, politicians and other opinion formers. Contributors will be asked to make their predictions for the coming decade and suggest development strategies for the wood sector.
The Forum has kicked off with the Medite 2016 Compendium, a 65-page book featuring forecasts for the wood-based industries from experts in a range of different fields. They discuss the growing impact of globalisation, the increasing influence of environmental concerns on national and international legislation and possible developments in technology. Among the predictions are that new wood/plastic composites and advanced abrasion resistant coatings will emerge and that timber processing generally will become vastly more efficient and automated.
But, just as important as the Compendium contributors’ assessment of what developments the industry will have to take on board, is their advice that it must also influence decision makers and help shape its own future. According to Kris Wijnendaele, Belgian secretary-general of the European Panel Federation, this is critical in environmental legislation. Equally important, says French industry consultant Dominique Coutrout, is putting the timber viewpoint across in the debate on the use of wood-fuelled power generation. MEP Catherine Guy-Quint also stresses the need to mould political and consumer opinion.
A more light-hearted aspiration for the future which I’m less sure about, though, is Mr Wijnendaele’s wish for a popular TV series featuring wood-based panels. Presumably they don’t show Neighbours in Belgium.
