Regional/sub-national

Holzkette Schwarzwald is an association of representatives of the forestry and wood industry as well as communities and individuals. Their goal is to promote the cooperation across various stages of timber products from forest owner to final consumer.%Furthermore, the association is aiming to strengthen the wood sector in general, especially in the Black Forest. At present, the association has 200 members, among them 12 communities: Bonndorf, Breitnau, Eisenbach, Feldberg, Friedenweiler, Hinterzarten, Löffingen, Lenzkirch, St.Märgen, St.Peter, Titisee - Neustadt and Schluchsee.%The association was established based on the EURES study "Standortinitiative Hochschwarzwald" commissioned by the municipalities of Löffingen, Lenzkirch and Titisee-Neustadt in 1996. %In particular, the study highlights the importance of the wood sector to the regional labor market in the Black Forest (24% of the workforce in the Black Forest depends on wood).

Personal contact and trust is the key to improve regional networks successfully.

Every 2 years the Holzkette organizes an event called Holztage. This event always take place in a membership community in the Black Forest.
Several information events and expert conventions as well as a fair take place during the Holztage.

In order to strengthen the competitiveness of forestry and timber industry and to promote the use of wood, eleven regional partner institutions founded the regional cluster initiative proHolz Schwarzwald. An important basis for this initiative is the high importance of forest and wood in the Black Forest. In particular, forestry, wood and sawing industry as well as carpentries have a high performance and great potential for innovations. proHolz Schwarzwald provides a information platform for industry members and the public about forestry, wood and timber constructions.

Bringing together regional networks and motivating partners are the key to success. Working on a personal level is the most important key to implement a successful network.

Accomplishment of several projects along the chain of custody focusing on the regional added value.

The purpose of the project is to develop a new product by increasing private investment in research, development, innovation and strengthening the capacity of Pana WINDOWS d.o.o. for research, development and innovation through continuous collaboration with research institutions.

The project will procure equipment and services for conducting industrial research subject to effective collaboration and extensive knowledge dissemination and to hire professional staff.

Project contributes to the priority areas of the Smart Specialization Strategy of the Republic of Croatia for the period 2016-2020 in areas Food, Bioeconomy and Energy and Sustainable Environment. It is planned to be realized in cooperation with Euroinspekt-drvokontrola d.o.o. and implementation will help to achieve excellence in industrial research, development and innovation, commercialization of new products, revenue and export growth, which will have a positive impact on national economy.

BASE has developed Cogen'Air, the first Thermovoltaic solar panel, capable of producing electricity and heat simultaneously. While a conventional solar panel converts only about 15 to 20% of the solar energy received into electricity, Cogen'Air produces 10% more electricity and 3 times more heat, for a total efficiency of more than 60%. This Thermovoltaic panel is therefore 4 times more efficient than a conventional solar panel. BASE designs and markets heat and electricity production solutions for agricultural drying activities and biomass drying activities. It also markets solutions for the energy efficiency of buildings: heating support, electricity and domestic hot water production. The main objectives are: - Provide innovative and cost-effective solar solutions to contribute to a sustainable society. - Guarantee a drying quality superior to that of open-air drying and allow the production of a fuel with constant characteristics specific to the needs of boilers. - Improve the value of wood by preserving the resource in particular. - Reduce stocks and the mass to be transported. - Achieve a higher PCI, reduce wood consumption, increase boiler life - Generate income from photovoltaic production. The dryers designed with Cogen'Air Thermovoltaic technology ensure a homogeneous and fast drying of the wood energy. The control system allows the dryer to operate optimally, based on numerous temperature and humidity sensors. These dryers make it possible to recycle wood waste and give it a second life. One of the BASE dryers is intended, for example, for the recovery and drying of crushed strains, dry chips that will then be marketed in supermarkets as firelighters. This product from the Cogen'Air drying process has a high PCI and is ideal for boilers. The electricity is resold and provides additional income to the operator.

The objective of the OPTIM'indus action is to provide tailored support to develop the performance and competitiveness of companies by providing keys to meet the challenges facing the industry. It is financed by Europe, the Fund for Innovation in Industry, the New Aquitaine region and the OPCAIM (Joint Organisation for the Authorised Collection of Metallurgy Industries).
3 development axes are proposed to companies:
1) Project support
2) Skills development
3) Development of professional networks

The support of the company's projects is divided into several stages:
- expertise in skills and vocational training needs and an industrial diagnosis to define new technical orientations,
- assistance in improving processes, tools and product development, for example by carrying out a feasibility study or by putting partners, consultants or experts in contact with each other.
- proposal for financial assistance
OPTIM'indus offers Master Classes, training days or courses for executives, managers or technicians to develop skills.
It runs "Industry of the Future" clubs where companies meet and exchange ideas.

The project aims to use new technologies to make the wood sales system economical and dynamic, and to fluidize information to increase wood mobilization and get forest owners involved in management.
Two tools have been developed:
- a computerized wood auction sale system coupled with an online sales platform: SYLVATRADE system
- a digital GIS data sharing platform for optimized management accessible to all stakeholders (owners, managers, buyers) called NEOSYLVAQ.

In the long term, the expert firm Coudert wishes to organise wood sales exclusively online.

The computer sales tool (SYLVATRADE tool) is a platform created from a database to generate standardized batch records and edit contracts. It is associated with the NEOSYLVAQ cartographic platform to give the buyer an overview of the lots, the location and outline of each lot on cartography, access and itineraries and finally facilitates the organization of lot visits.  
At the time of the sale the buyer has several information on the lot on his digital tablet: geographical situation, cadastre, surface, species,... A quasi immediate computer processing makes it possible to display the best offer and its amount to the whole room. The computerized management makes it possible to treat approximately 90 000 m3 of wood in 2 hours. Sales balances can be carried out by computer and quickly by species, volume class, and geographical unit.  The group sales can be followed either remotely on the Internet, or in a room on digital tablets. The results of the offers appear in real time and the contractual documents are published during the sale and are signed electronically at the exit of sale.

FORETDATA is an operational collaborative platform for all stakeholders in the forest-wood-paper sector. It aims to improve knowledge of their activities by exchanging data. The platform makes it possible to obtain summaries at the level of the territory on the forest activity and to follow for each company their activities in relation to their data entry.
The mayors of municipalities can monitor the number of logging sites and their execution periods thanks to the platform.

The platform is developed only in New Aquitaine but it is possible to extend it to other regions. To function, it was necessary to establish a relationship of trust for rights management and application security.
The syntheses resulting from the platform are used as a means of communication with elected representatives in order to show the reality of forestry and to clarify the obstacles and their stakes.

Each forestry contractor fills in data related to the logging site (type of work, surface area, date of intervention, estimated volume, characteristics of the land) in order to fill out the online site opening declaration forms and safety data sheets. These are then sent directly to the services concerned (municipalities, DDT).
The sites are all mapped under GIS and the data referenced.
The users of the platform benefit:
- an online mapping tool that allows you to consult the cartographic bottoms and regulatory zoning
- of a drawing tool,
- of a shared directory,
- the production of standardised documents
- a platform for information exchange between companies.
In 2017, 182,000 ha were recorded on the platform, equivalent to 5,000 ha / month.
Currently, about twenty companies use the platform. The tool makes it possible to divide by 3 the time for a company to produce administrative documents.

The sawmills have made an investment for the purchase of a machine suitable for turning wooden poles. The aim was to use local and naturally durable wood species without adding chemical impregnating agents (chestnut in Tuscany, larch in Trentino) to offer turned stakes for fences, wooden toys and outdoor furniture on the market. The approach was to innovate the production process to better exploit the characteristics of the two species, also with a view to increasing consumers' environmental sensitivity (0 km wood, without the use of chemical impregnating agents). The larch on the Alpine arc and the chestnut on the Apennine ridge certainly are not lacking in Italy, just as the small or less assortments market that could be in this way valued. The investments for the plant and the training of the personnel must be carefully evaluated, but good margins can be imagined. To enhance this type of production, widely used for public urban furnishings, the willingness of Public Administrations to develop "green purchasing" policies must be carefully evaluated. The Casolla sawmill produces around 600-800 m3 of larch turned piles per year, PEFC certified, of which about 70% is turned out of heart and 30% with heart. The product is much appreciated, every year new customers are added to those already established and the practice of replacing, once consumed, pine poles impregnated with those in local larch is spreading. A great result for the Casolla Sawmill was the supply of large quantities of this product for EXPO 2015 (Milan). This aspect represents a negative for the Tani sawmill, because many Tuscan administrations continue to buy turned and impregnated products of foreign origin. The company currently produces around 3,000 q of turned, chestnut but also douglasia, less than the potential it had set for itself.

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.