Experts from InnoRenew CoE collaborated on a study, “How to use the potential of wood and wood industry to achieve sustainable development breakthrough”, where they set the ground for preparation of Slovenia’s 2021–2027 wood industry strategy, which is being developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, Wood Industry Directorate.

A key finding from the study was that, in Slovenia, four cubic meters of wood per capita grows annually, but only about half a cubic meter of wood per capita is used for products. This finding indicates that there is still a lot of potential for development in the Slovenian wood processing industry.

Another encouraging finding is that transforming 3 million cubic meters of wood into products would sequester approximately 7.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. This number represents 50 percent of the annual carbon dioxide emissions in Slovenia, thus it would significantly reduce the country’s harmful emissions at the same time. Export of Slovenia’s harvested timber is high, meaning there is still a lack of activities related to the production of Slovenian wood products with higher added value.

Wood—a renewable and natural material—is of strategic importance to Slovenia as the country produces the most per capita in the European Union. Based on this and the recently performed study, the Wood Industry Directorate is preparing measures and implementing activities to promote the development of Slovenia’s wood processing industry. In light of the European Green Deal, the importance of the economy’s sustainable development, promotion of local production and lower energy consumption is also being recognized by the European Union.

Read more about the findings in the news item, “Kako izkoristiti potencial lesa za trajnostni razvojni preboj”, published on the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology webpage.