Forest2Market was pleased to be a presenter and Silver Sponsor at the 2017 Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference, which kicked off March 29 in Helsinki, Finland. The theme of this year’s event focused on replacing fossil fuels in a sustainable way.
Finland hosted this year’s Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference on March 29-30 as part of the centenary celebrations of Finland’s independence. The Finnish government also has been actively involved in helping the country develop a low-carbon, green economy. Bioenergy is already the largest energy source in Finland and, with several biobased manufacturing facilities in development, investment in the sector is significant.
This year’s conference included over 200 experts across the bioenergy spectrum that are discussing options to replace fossil fuels in a sustainable way, as well as the role of bioenergy in that transition. The conference was co-organized by the Bioenergy Association of Finland and the Swedish Bioenergy Association, who are both looking at new bioenergy policies and markets. Information sessions include discussion about biofuels, combined heat and power generation (CHP), pellet markets, heating services, global biomass markets and new technologies.
Forest2Market President and CEO Pete Stewart and Matias Pekkanen, Senior Consultant for Indufor presented a report titled “Benchmarking Biomass Supply Chains” at the 2017 conference. The presentation addressed many of the pain points experienced within the wood products value chain in the Nordic region, and highlighted Forest2Market’s ability to address these challenges with the application of unique datasets. Forest2Market is the only global provider of pricing indexes and supply chain solutions for wood-consuming industries that are derived entirely from transaction data. Key takeaways for the audience include:
- The Nordic region has a mature supply chain, and established trade routes enable it to reliably supply new investments by the forest products and bioenergy industries.
- Without price transparency, markets will remain fragmented and growth will be muted.
- Transaction-based benchmarks bring integrity and confidence to markets.
- Indexing price to a benchmark in long-term supply agreement balances risk resulting in more reliable supply.
Forest2Market President and CEO Pete Stewart presenting at the 2017 Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference
Gustav Melin, Managing Director of the Swedish Bioenergy Association said, “Our conference is a Baltic Sea region event, and today the Baltic Sea is really becoming the Green Sea. We have impressive renewable bioenergy investments in most big cities around the Sea. Helsinki, Vilnius and Copenhagen are pursuing investments in Combined Heat and Power from bioenergy and Fortum recently finished their €550 million euro investment in CHP in Stockholm. This conference is about how to continue replacing fossils in the Baltic Sea region and gives great opportunities for business development.”
2017 Conference partners include Svebio (Swedish Bioenergy Association), Bioenergia ry (The Bioenergy Association of Finland), Bioenergy International and AEBIOM (European Biomass Association). Other Silver Sponsors include Scania and KPA Unicon.