Competitiveness of Wood Construction and Regional Economy – European Framework

Europe's wood construction sector is a global leader in technlogy and innovation, which is based on long traditions with wood building and continuous research and development efforts of leading companies and the research community over the past decades. Growing interest in green building and decarbonization have led to a boom in wood construction in Europe. Major challenges for the future development are climate-impacts in forests, such as increasing disturbances and long-term changes towards more mixed forests, a lack of skilled workers, and a complex European policy context related to forests. New policy and training initiatives are starting to address these through joint European advocacy and collaboration. Keynote presentation at the "Drivers for Wood Construction conference (DWC 2025)" from 13-14 Feb 2025, hosted by the Karelia University of Applied Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Luke the Natural Resources Institute Finland, and the European Forest Institute EFI, co-funded by the European Union. woodjoensuu.fi/drivers-for-wood-construction-2025