‘Our vision is to see that wood based products become the first choice for building systems and consumer products in Europe. The objective is to increase the consumption of wood in Europe to 0.25m3 per capita by the year 2010, which means increasing the market for wood by 20 million m3 within 10 years.’
These are the ambitious words of Jan Söderlind, recently appointed managing director of the Nordic Timber Council.
Until now, he pointed out, the policy of the Council has been to market and provide information on the Nordic sawmill industry and Nordic wood products. Under its new strategy, however, its efforts will be concentrated on generic promotion of wood, primarily in Europe, and on its main strategic business areas: ‘Building with wood’ and ‘Living with wood’.
‘We aim to increase European co-operation in the field of wood promotion, by means of pan-European projects and co-operation with other wood promoting organisations in Europe,’ says managing director Jan Söderlind.
As part of its new strategy the Nordic Timber Council intends to widen its support base by not only counting sawmills among its members but also producers of wood products and engineered wood products such as plywood. Thus the organisation plans to gradually increase its membership among Nordic sawmills and other wood based industries.
Environmental properties
‘We intend to promote the use of wood, based on environmental properties and sustainable forest management,’ explains Mr Söderlind. ‘Nordic forests are managed in such a way that more trees are planted than are cut down. This not only results in there being more trees to remove carbon from the atmosphere but the wood used in industry and in the home contains a permanent stock of carbon that is not returned to the atmosphere. Sustainability is one of our watchwords and reducing climatic changes is our key objective.’
Eighty per cent of the Nordic Timber Council’s budget is currently being spent on the wood. for good campaign in the UK. This campaign has a total budget of SKr55m, SKr10m of which is contributed from the UK. ‘This campaign is a good example of a very successful co-operation with other wood promoting organisations,’ points out Mr Söderlind.
Initially, of course, the Nordic Timber Council ran its Nordic First promotional campaign, targeting retailers and consumers, alongside wood. for good. But, in the second half of last year it was decided that a single generic wood campaign would make the promotion more effective – and this view helped shape the new strategy for the Nordic Timber Council itself.
The wood. for good campaign, which is now in its second year, has been deemed a success by all its backers and, at a recent forum in Stockholm, British trade representatives were enthusiastic about rolling it on beyond the three years it was originally scheduled to run.
Benefits of co-operation
‘The intention with the Building Europe and PR Europe campaigns is to open up co-operation with all the wood promoters in Europe. Co-operation in promotional activities will have a major benefit on the total market share for wood,’ says Mr Söderlind.
‘In the Building Europe project we shall invite European organisations to join us in developing building systems using wood products. We must make the use of wood the most competitive option for building and the preferred choice as a building material. We intend to promote the real benefits of wood rather than have a head on collision with competitive materials such as concrete, plastic and aluminium. We have to discover what discourages people from using wood and then provide the tools that architects, specifiers and contractors need to make this a successful project.’
