A bright idea for technology.

How can the forest products industry turn on the proverbial light bulb for new ideas? It's a good question. All industries must continually develop new technology both to increase productivity and to create new products or they will wither and die. For the forest products industry, the question is where that new technology will come from.

For many years, the industry handled "blue sky" R&D on a company-by-company basis, but in today's business climate many of the breakthrough projects are beyond the means of individual firms. What is needed now, the experts say, is "pre-competitive" basic R&D shared by many different partners. From this research will come technologies to improve--even transform--the forest products industry.

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This process began with Agenda 2020, a bold research vision developed as part of a unique government-business partnership (see page 32 of this issue). The next step in that process took place recently at Technology Summit II, an impressive gathering of technology leaders, developers and practitioners held in Peachtree City, Georgia, USA at the end of March.

The theme of Summit II was "Meeting the Challenge of Deployment." The first Technology Summit, held three years earlier in the same location, was about "filling the pipeline" with useful ideas that might be developed. Summit II was about choosing the best projects in the pipeline and figuring out how they should be deployed.

As one participant said, "Our issue is not access to technology--it is our will to use it, the skill to practice it, and the speed to implement it in time. We must get these projects to a stage where they will attract investment."

Summit II brought together working groups of highly skilled people with various backgrounds. These working groups held intensive meetings for three days, reporting back to the entire group on their progress. Their mission was to identify the most promising technology in their area and put together a plan to develop it. The areas are:

* Positively Impacting the Environment

* Next Generation Fiber Recovery and Utilization

* Increasing Fiber Yield

* Reducing the Complexity of Drying

* Retaining and Improving Fiber Functionality

* Durability in Wood Products

* VOC/HAP Destruction

* Sustainable Forest Productivity

* Extracting Value Prior to Pulping

* Creating New Value Streams from Residuals and Spent Pulping Liquors

* Technologically Advanced Workforce

* A Societal Assessment of the Agenda 2020 Vision

The progress made by the different working groups was remarkable. I was able to sit in on some of the groups, and while I can't pretend that I fully understood a great deal of the high level give and take, I was impressed with the commitment of the groups and their determination to develop workable plans.

While it is impossible to summarize the results of these sessions in this small space, please stay tuned: Solutions! will be publishing a series of articles that explains the societal value of the technologies, the value to industry, costs and benefits, and the alliances that will develop the technology.

Some of this technology will simply improve and refine existing processes; other technologies will be "disruptive," challenging and perhaps eliminating current processes. It is a pattern we have seen before in the forest products industry: consider the plastic wire, composite wood, twin-wire formers, the shoe press, and other innovations.

To make sure our industry has a future, we must create it by going beyond traditional products and by developing economically and socially desirable technologies. These are, no doubt, lofty goals but even if we achieve just a few of them, we will have gone a long way toward insuring not only that our industry has a future, but that it's a bright one.

Note: Technology Summit II was sponsored by the following organizations: TAPPI, AF&PA, USDA Forest Service, National Science Foundation, CPBIS, IPST at Georgia Tech, U.S. Department of Energy, and USDA CSREES.

Alan Rooks 

Editorial Director

Contact Alan at [phone], or by e-mail at: [e-mail].