From the 5 to 8 September, the Finnish “Uusi puu – New Wood” initiative organised an exhibition entitled “what wood can do?” in the facilities of the EU Parliament, in order to show wood-based innovations that respond to global challenges changing our everyday life. The exhibition displayed more than 50 wood-based solutions for the needs of packaging, hygiene, health care, construction-, textile-, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

“The wood-based bio-economy is already offering products and solutions to mitigate climate change, among other things. The purpose of this exhibition is to highlight several solutions based on renewable raw material, which will help to adapt to global changes,” says MEP Henna Virkkunen (National Coalition Party) who was hosting the exhibition. According to Ms Virkkunen, the aim of the exhibition is to increase confidence in the diverse and resource efficient use of wood as a raw material particularly amongst European decision-makers. “It feels natural to tell about possibilities for the sustainable use of wood as part of the bio- and circular economies together with the New Wood initiative. The group represents a diverse range of actors from those engaged in R&D activity for wood processing to companies manufacturing global consumer products. We will also talk about the Finnish sustainable forest economy and possibilities to replace non-renewable materials”, Virkkunen proceeds.

On 5 September, the EU Commissioner Jyrki Katainen gave a keynote speech at the opening of the exhibition “New Wood” and he stressed the important contribution of the he forestry Industry in developing a bio-based circular economy.