A FORUM FOR JOINT INNOVATION
– to solve common challenges in the Nordic region
Monica Sellæg Grindberg is the Forest Manager at Statskog, which manages one fifth of Norway's forests through planting, thinning and felling. They are one of the companies behind the Nordic Green Business Forum. For both Statskog and Monica, NGBF is important partly to lift the industry and be inspired by others and partly to promote Swedish-Norwegian cooperation.
Common challenges unite people
Norwegian and Swedish forestry are mostly managed equally but have slightly different challenges. A common challenge, on the other hand, is the EU's new forest strategy, which through Norway's strong cooperation with Sweden has an indirect impact on Norway's forestry.
“When the EU wants to ban clear-cutting, it creates great challenges for us in the Nordic region as we are forced to completely change how we use the forest. Norway and Sweden are already cooperating to a large extent with research and approaches, and with the EU’s proposal for a directive, Norway will also be affected indirectly. ”
Innovation and digitization
The world is changing rapidly and this places demands on all industries, the forest industry is no exception. It is important to develop new solutions and see new opportunities to meet and achieve national and global goals. Having the opportunity to meet and collaborate with others in the same industry provides greater opportunities to succeed in changing both structures and behaviors.
Statskog has, in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBO), developed the forest forecasting tool Geoskog. With the help of this tool, you can, among other things, simulate the forest 100 years in the future, get information about how much CO² is bound and when during the year the forest is available for felling.
It is also important to see opportunities with technology that is already available today. Statskog, for example, uses drones to map and inventory the forest, among other things. You can quickly and easily get an idea of what action is needed. It saves both time and other resources.
“I hope this can help lift the industry to new heights!”
Monica sees that there is a great need for the physical meeting. She has high hopes that the Nordic Green Business Forum will become an annual event and that more people in the industry will want to participate.