Innovation in the Forest Products Industry
By Omar Espinoza and Maria Fernanda Laguarda-Mallo
The U.S. forest products industry has been facing many struggles during the last two decades. A combination of growing competition from imports, the rise of electronic media, competition from substitute materials, environmental concerns, and the recent economy downturn, have caused thousands of mill closures and more than a million job losses between 2005 and 2009 alone [1]. We now import the majority of our furniture [2]. Plastic, steel, and hybrid materials have taken significant market share in products that previously were made almost exclusively of wood, such as siding, windows, and decking. Although the construction industry, a major driver for the demand of forest products, is slowly but steadily recovering, there have been structural changes that are not going to reverse, such as the increasing use of electronic communications.
However, some economic and social developments offer a promising future for the forest products industry. Millions of people are coming out of poverty and joining the middle classes in developing nations, such as China, India, and Brazil, and their growing purchasing power represents a great opportunity to make products that these populations need. Also, an increasing realization of the environmental attributes of wood is prompting governments and private enterprises to invest resources in research and development of new materials and products derived from this wonderful material; resulting in new and exciting applications. Similarly, the desire for energy independence and concerns for climate change are driving the development of renewable energy. Wood biomass is a carbon-neutral energy source which can provide thermal energy for district heating or with thermochemical or biochemical processes be converted into biofuels. In this paper, some examples of major innovations in wood-derived products and applications are presented.
