Wood Magazine is facing a positive challenge: an overwhelming array of interesting topics. Even the program for Wood Day shares the same “dilemma” – too many good ideas. Speaking of Wood Day, make sure to save the date of Wednesday, November 6th in your calendars.

There is more and more talk about the use of wood – after all, it solves a variety of issues. But talking the talk is merely the beginning: after the wood industry engages in discussions and continues to evolve, it needs to walk the walk with concrete actions. Light is already visible at the end of the tunnel, with share prices of construction companies rising and interest rates on loans falling. Construction is predicted to begin a new boom next year at the latest, which is likely to mean more sales of wood products. In preparation for this increased demand, the industry is already investing in sawmills, processing plants, and offices.

Wood still lags far behind concrete, however, accounting for merely 1% of the building materials used in Europe (Source: Matti Kuittinen / Circular Building Coalition, 2024).

We already have the products and technologies ready, but why are they not a better fit for the construction industry’s processes?

We all know that most people prefer to live, holiday, study, and work in wooden buildings, but do we know why they still sometimes choose otherwise, as do builders?

One often hears that the main obstacle to wood construction is the construction industry’s own attitude, namely that it resists change and is unable to innovate. This is, of course, merely a lazy argument that makes it easy to dodge responsibility.

Various factors play into the choices made in a construction project. Personally, I believe that profit, risk, inertia, and familiarity still exert considerable influence – sometimes more than the eventual effects on well-being or the environment or the thrill of learning a new way of building.

This could be studied more closely. While our industry tinkers away at its products, making use of the current peaceful moment, perhaps our experts could investigate these underlying processes and then teach us to serve construction better? We could also turn our sights abroad, potentially uncovering new collaborative models for the design process or the role of the architect as the project leader.

After all, the only way to increase the use of wood is to understand why wood is or isn’t chosen. This is something we, the wood industry, need to find out for ourselves.

Anu Turunen Managing Director, Puuinfo