Futurobois : Interprofessional organization of the forest-wood-paper industry in Poitou-Charentes (in New-Aquitaine)

Futurobois is a registered association, operating by voluntary membership.
The objective of the interprofessional association is to unite professionals in the forest-wood-paper sector within an association to exchange and meet. Futurobois' main mission is to promote and inform professionals, local authorities and the general public about the use of wood products.
They help member companies to find solutions to enable their economic, technical, human and environmental development.
Futurobois' team consists of 5 people.

Futurobois operates mainly thanks to funding from the region, the State, Europe and the national interprofessional organisation (France Bois Forêt). The remainder comes from membership fees and services rendered. They are the 4th largest interprofessional association in France in terms of number of member companies and 8th in terms of budget.
They provide technical knowledge on wood materials to architects and try to better understand their needs in wood construction.
Assistance is offered to project managers to remove the blocking points concerning the use of wood in construction (fire risk, insect,...).

In June 2018, the interprofessional association had 237 members in 42 sectors, including forestry, primary processing, secondary processing and construction. The association's actions are the preparation and animation of:  
visits to sawmills, factories,
days of visits around wood processing: from the forest site to the secondary processing,
meetings dedicated to professionals by sector of activity (e.g. in 2018 meetings of furniture professionals),
steering committee for the development of poplar in New Aquitaine,
study trips abroad.
These visits allow companies to meet and give them better visibility with public or private project managers and elected officials.
The interprofessional organisation also helps companies to secure their supply and comply with regulatory frameworks for small companies. They offer them a catalogue of training courses on different themes (human resources, accounting, etc.)