Forest-based bio/circular economy

Forest information is standardized so that actors engaged in the forest sector could develop and use harmonized information systems. Although basic concepts and measurement units have been defined for decades, almost every actor has implemented them differently in their information systems. Converting and transferring information is difficult or almost impossible between systems. Forest information standards facilitate the use of open materials and data transfer between actors. This improves operational efficiency and international competitiveness of forest sector.

The development of information exchange interfaces is not finished. The goal is a situation where all forest industry systems would read, write and send via a forest information standard.

Standard defines the structure, data types and codes used in different schemes. Forest information standards are based on XML-format (geometry: GML).
Data to be exchanged with standards is: special feature data, forest compartment data, forest use declaration, timber trade, harvesting and operations. The projects outcome is: documentation, schemas, guidelines, practises. The outcome will be written XML files which are transferred between different systems. XML is used as it is international data standard, a method to structure electronic documents. XML-documents (=files) are readable and alloes to import data into all systems capable of reading such documents. The structure of XML-documents can be validated automatically so it follows its definitions (=schema).

A “machinery ring” describes an association where farmers support each other by offering machinery and services in forestry and agriculture:
The “machinery ring” is a community that exchanges experiences, shares machines and supports in emergency situations.
it’s essentially based on community and innovation
The „machinery ring“ is a Germany-wide organisation; membership is completed in the members’ local machinery ring (place of living)
The focus is on a member organization and the sustainable benefits for the associated companies

The “machinery ring” successfully offer their members:
reduced production costs attractive employment and additional income opportunities
enhanced working conditions (for example outsourcing of work chains, support of employees during peak periods)
allowances in emergency situations (damages, etc.)
expert consultancy, wide range of services, mediation contracts

The “machinery rings” are the first consulting partners in management and field work organization
The local organizations provide individual personnel, services and technology
The cost-effective shared use of modern technology / machinery in forestry and agriculture, employment models for members and organization of value chains especially in rural areas are the main building blocks
In Germany there are about 240 local machinery ring organizations that represent about 192.000 agricultural farms
Roof organization is the “Bundesverband der Maschinenringe e.V.“ with it’s subsidiary „Maschinenring Deutschland GmbH“

Egger Romania invested in resource saving technology and included recycling in the process. Up to 18% of the wood used in Romanian factories are recycling material. They process waste wood from furniture, pallets, wooden packaging materials, construction and demolition, that meets the requirements of the applicable directives and inspection systems. The material is also inspected visually and contaminated wood is separated for thermal use. In Romania, the EGGER Group runs its own recycling enterprises under the name Timberpak.

Suitable recycled wood is processed there and used for chipboard production. Large volumes of by-products and recyclable wood are generated by the plants. The company upgrades them into materials or uses them to generate environmentally friendly heat and electricity. With EGGER wood-based materials, the company established good environmental performance of the urban wood material. The objective of a closed loop material cycle is, on the one hand, to reuse all waste and by products as efficiently as possible, and on the other hand, to make substances used in the product available again for production at the end of the product life cycle, by implementing optimal recycling. The possibility of a closed material cycle should be taken into account even during the preliminary stage of product planning in conjunction with product design. Re-use of materials that were already used in products and have passed through a usage phase. The great challenge is to separate materials so that they become again source materials for new products. The collection division of recycled wood and the recycling installation of wood from Romania are the EGGER’s solution for a secondary, sustainable life cycle of materials based on wood.

The recycling wood quantities which were elaborated and recycled in 2016 by EGGER Romania replaced the potential of usage of 35,000 hectares of forests. The company has a unique wood recycling installation in Romania, dedicated and used exclusively for this purpose. At Romanian level, EGGER uses in average 17 % recycled wood for the production of panels based on wood in 2018. Last year, EGGER Romania reached a level of approximately 8 % and in the half of 2017, while in 2017 reach 15 % of recycled wood, and it was estimated a share of 17 % for the second half of 2017. The objective for 2020 is to recycle more than 150,000 tonnes of materials based on wood, annually, equivalent to more than 30 % of the volume of wood from forest works, according to Ioan Banciu, technical director of EGGER Eastern Europe division.

The significant increase in the number of forestry contractors in last few years has been increasing competition, however at the same time requires a reflection on the objective quality of contractors. In sustainable management of forests, the criterion for the selection of contractor should not be only the lowest service price, but it should include also environmental, social and business aspects of the relationship between the client and the contractor. Platform MojGozdar (MyForester) enables the integration of all stakeholders in the forest-wood value chain, including providers of forestry services, users of services (forest owners, forest managers) and administrators of basic data bases about business entities. It is a transparent and objective web-based information system for assessing the suitability of contractors, who perform work in the forest. The methodology for evaluating is consisted of an automatic assessment of the formal suitability of the forestry contractors and direct evaluation of the service by consumers.

Detailed description is available at http://www.crojfe.com/site/assets/files/4529/triplat_77-90.pdf

Machinery ring is a social organization that offers support services for farmers and forest owners. It is a form of the use of machines between farms based on mutual neighborly assistance. Members of a machinery ring are owners of agricultural and/or forestry machinery and they can also provide services to other members at prices agreed. The machinery ring ensures coordination and dialogue between service providers and users.

Experience of the first years of operation show good results. The amount of work increases year by year. Forest owners are provided with a comprehensive service, from harvesting forest trees to selling timber, processing residues in wood chips and selling chips. They are able to achieve better prices at market. The machinery ring is a good and innovative example of linking forest owners, which by increasing efficiency and professionalism enables increased mobilization of wood from private forests, better silviculture of these forests and higher returns for individual owners.

Forest owners have access to high-quality hardware that cannot be afforded by individual owners. The machinery ring also provides expert advice and the purchase and sale of wood, including biomass for heating, and agricultural services. In the framework of the machinery ring, the training of owners for work in the forest and professional excursions are organized in cooperation with the Forest Service. The members also receive various discounts when purchasing forestry equipment. To make better use of machinery and work on a larger scale, they set up a limited liability company SK Servis, which deals with felling, harvesting and sale of wood, the production and sale of wood chips and the construction and maintenance of skid roads.

Since 2005 Cip Calor has focused on woody biomass. Careful to professionalism, safety and quality, the company has explored fields that were little known at the time. The sale of wood was accompanied by contracts for the supply of wood chips to public users and contracting activities. In 2010 it invested in the construction of an innovative biomass platform, today the company's nerve center, where firewood and wood chips can be produced and marketed in compliance with the quality standards required by the market and the relevant regulations. The advantages of this logistic-productive-commercial model are many. The organization and optimization of productivity has improved; thanks to the covered structure it is possible to work even in bad weather days; it is easier to manage the quality control system; the number of customers has increased, seeing in the platform a place characterized by a clear and transparent marketing; also interesting is the aspect of visibility and access to the platform at convenient times, where customers can observe and "touch" the work phases and the product they intend to buy. The platform has been designed in an optimal position for the management of the material: from about half of the wooded area that the company manages, it is even possible to cut the wood with a cable crane directly in the yard, with obvious logistical consequences. Excluding raw wood deposits all production activities are covered, below a 1,400 m2 ventilated structure. The main elements of the platform are: "Chipped" line: deposit for the wood chips to be dried; drier; mini co-generator for the production of electricity and heat; storage for dried wood chips. "Firewood" line: area used for cutting and splitting; roll-off bodies connected to the hot air exiting the co-generator; storage for firewood. Other structures: mini-sawmill for the production of manufactured goods; warehouse for the recovery of tools and staff rooms, heated to the floor with the heat recovered from the co-generator; commercial office.

This company was founded in 2013, when a manager in the IT sector, Carlo Petrolo, decided to renovate a family farmhouse using the trees on the property. None of the few remaining sawmills, however, makes itself available to take a few logs and then saw them. Petrolo sees an opportunity in this crisis situation. Thus was born the idea of ​​preparing a mobile, self-transportable sawmill service, suitable for all those who had the need to work their own wood on site.

The activity appears easily replicable with reduced investments. In addition, a service like this could complement another activity, forest or agricultural. However, a widespread action of promotion and contact with all possible purchasers of the service is necessary: ​​very diversified subjects, since we pass from the forest operator to the private citizen, up to the public administration. In the case in question, marketing activities via internet had a fundamental role, especially through social networks.

The service, initially based on a single mobile sawmill, immediately received great interest from operators in the sector and inhabitants in mountain areas. The service, now expanded also in the Italian territory with several mobile sawmills in action. It has responded to the need of many small private owners or farms who are often in a position to be unable to use their raw materials due to the lack of local facilities still capable of sawing small quantities. This experience has also been the forerunner of numerous other alpine entrepreneurial activities (forest companies and treeclimbers) that have purchased mobile sawmills to enhance the wood that was previously used as biomass or waste.

The ashes can be used in a road building among gravel. The use of ash from neighboring heat plants reduces the use of natural aggregates. The use of ash in the construction of the road has been limited, as it is currently subject to environmental permits.
In the forest and energy industries, burning wood produces a lot of ash, which is placed in landfills. The forest industry alone generates more than 300 000 tonnes of exploeable ash every year. The increase in wood energy increases the amount of ash even further. Current measures to benefit from the use of ash do not correspond to the principles of sustainable consumption and production. It would be essential to influence the legislation in order to ease the utilization of ash. It is important to perform carrying capacity measurements and research and test different mixtures of gravel and ash. The environmental issues need to be surveyed.

In Finland there are 135 000 km of forest roads where maintenance is necessary for wood procurement. According to the National Forest Programme 2015, forest car roads should be upgraded to 4 000 km annually. In the construction of roads, cost-effectiveness is most essential. The biggest challenge in most cases is the availability of affordable gravel or crushing near the forest road project. Utilization of ash as material for road construction and maintenance has produced excellent results in terms of both the technical suitability and the environmental impact.

Wooden raw material is during production process in Spačva Ltd. fully utilized. In every processing step, one final product it is created, and potential of ash use as fertilizer is being researched.

Different parts of wood are used:

- bark as fuel for boiler-room,

- energy produced is used for biomass dryers, lumber and veneer dry kilns, steaming of logs and heating of press machine and industrial space,

- saw dust and leftovers are used for pellets production and low-quality veneer parts

- flitch residues, after veneer slicing, are dyed in dying kilns and processed in saw-mill,

- more quality parts are used for floors and doors production, while low quality parts and residues after precise cutting of the veneer are used for pellet and briquette production,

- veneer sheets are used for production of final products,

- elements from finishing saw-mill are used for floor and door production and its residues for briquette and pellet production.

In that way of production organization, efficiency in using of forest resources in the form of logs, is significantly increased.

As a result, company expended its product line, increased productivity, competitiveness and market share.

Still, there are opportunities for enhancement in new technologies and new possibilities for ash exploitation. Cogeneration project is in preparation for bringing additional cascade in cascading use of wood and to bring additional added value in this value chain. Also, there are possibilities for re-using and recycling of final products as veneer, floors and doors after their end of lifetime.

Scots pine wood from the Region of Pinares (a region located between the provinces of Soria and Burgos) enjoyed great prestige in the Spanish market, despite the fact that it lacked a common standardised basis among the companies in the sector that would allow  to launch a regulated product on the market that would facilitate its commercialisation.
There was also a mismatch between the quality of the product and the quality of the service offered to the buyer by the industry.
In this context, the first guarantee mark was created in the wood sector, the Guarantee Mark Pino Soria Burgos.

The main lesson learned is that the wood sector requires common marketing standards that make it easier for users to buy their products, eliminating confusion and insecurities that lead to a rejection of the use of wood. They also allow generating a mercantile reference to compete with the rest of products, whether made of wood or other materials such as concrete, steel, pvc…
It also allows for closer ties between the business and technology sectors, which guarantees continuous improvement of the business sector through both training and innovation.

This guarantee mark is based on three basic pillars: Guarantee of origin, sustainability (all forests and their processors are certified under the PEFC system) and quality (common marketing bases are established).
More than 48 municipalities and the Community of the 150 villages of the Land of Soria, and a total of 15 companies of first transformation of the wood, have joined.
On the other hand, we have managed to join a sector that until the creation of the Guarantee Brand was completely dispersed. In addition, its close relationship with Cesefor (forestry and wood technological centre) has enabled it to carry out extensive certification of its products (CE marking, PEFC, carbon footprint), training courses (cost control, structural calculation, wood treatment, etc.), and innovation projects (structural characterisation, development of new building systems, etc.). Currently, the companies of the Guarantee Mark are references in the Spanish wood sector and in the construction sector.