Finland, with its forest industry in the lead, has excellent potential of being a forerunner in the bioeconomy. Bioeconomy refers to production using, processing and marketing renewable natural resources, as well as to the consumption of products manufactured from renewable natural resources.
Shaping Finland into a leading bioeconomy
When the operational preconditions of the forest industry are maintained, Finland will succeed as a leader in the field of bioeconomy, where:
- manufactures recyclable and biodegradable products that store atmospheric carbon,
- uses an increasing amount of domestic productive inputs,
- builds out of wood and packages with paperboard,
- develops new biomass-based technologies,
- manufactures next-generation biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials,
- creates prosperity with low emissions of carbon dioxide and
- does not consume products or raw materials wastefully.
The forest industry is already bioeconomy
The forest industry is a leading utiliser of wood and forest biomass as it in addition to forest products also manufactures bioenergy, biofuels and in the future also several biochemicals in next-generation biorefineries.
In the future, the characteristics of wood fibre processed in biorefineries can be shaped into the desired direction. Thereby new products of the bioeconomy include biofuels and biochemicals and biocomposites and plastics manufactured from wood fibre, as well as other biomaterials.
The revival of wood
Products produced from wood, wood fibre and wood components replace unrenewable materials and fossil fuels as we make the transition towards a low-carbon bioeconomy.
Wood structures and wood building are gaining ground as the main material of large buildings such as apartment houses and offices. In the future, even more attention shall be paid to the carbon and energy balance of building materials and to the energy efficiency of buildings.