At the end of January 2018, more than 65 people attended three working groups organised by the Luxembourg Wood Cluster. The objective was to identify the hottest topics in wood production, wood construction and wood processing and to arrive at proposed lines of thought or action.
Wood production, wood in construction and wood processing: these were the themes of the three working groups organised by the Luxembourg Wood Cluster from January 29, 30 and 31. It was as much a question of identifying the needs of the various players on the ground as of establishing a certain prioritisation of the challenges and of proposing the first steps of projects / actions to advance in certain domains.
“Each working group was chaired and led by a member of the Wood Cluster Board,” says Philippe Genot, Wood Cluster Manager. Michel Leytem (District Manager of the Administration of Nature and Forests), Françoise Ferring (Director SGI Engineers) and Corinne Brever (Director at Brever Bois) led the discussions which at times were very animated.
“For us, it was important to ensure that through these groups, the information and feedback was ‘Bottom-Up’ which is essential for the proper functioning of a cluster,” says Philippe Genot.
Valorisation of Luxembourg’s forests – a “regional” and sustainable resource
The various subjects concerned such important topics as the quality of the wood from our Luxembourg forests and the valorisation of this “regional” resource; forest certification; the sales methods or even more the transformation processes (sawmills, wood energy, wood industry …). The issue of establishing statistics for logging and for timber construction was also at the heart of the exchanges.
The event was quite a success: 23 people attended the “Production “group; there were 27 for the “Construction” group and 16 for the “Transformation” group. Once the synthesis of these working groups has been drafted, the plan is to hold other meetings in the same format on a regular basis, in order to more deeply discuss together certain points. Two other thematic groups are also scheduled for May, dedicated to innovation and training.
“Wood is everywhere”.
A few days later, a new edition of the monthly meetings – “Meet a member” – was initiated.
This time, the City of Luxembourg hosted the evening, under the banner, “Wood is everywhere”. With 1,055 ha of communal forests and some 4,000 m3 of timber harvested each year, the capital is an important partner of the Wood Cluster.
This meeting notably involved a demonstration in the forest of actual forest works, with the cutting down of some beeches and a demonstration of different types of “skidding” (pulling cut trees out of a forest) but also with the presentation of different methods of wood transformation in the workshop and the production of various furniture / wooden objects.
The twenty or so members who braved the snowfall were also informed of the vision and the various actions carried out by the City of Luxembourg and the Administration of Nature and Forests in relation to their forests and wood.
The next “Meet a member” event of the Wood Cluster will take place on April at 16:00 pm at Bois Brever in Troisvierges.