2018-04-13

The Potential of the Forest is Highlighted at Åre Business Forum

Åre Business Forum is Sweden's premier business and investment forum, the Nordic counterpart to the World Economic Forum in Davos, focusing on business, investment and new contacts. The visitors meet the main entrepreneurs and the most current companies and on-site owners, group leaders, key national actors and the best growth companies in the Nordic region and some of our leading politicians.

Cleantech Kvarken was in place to highlight the region and its strengths and potential in the region were presented through Northvolt, Domsjö Fabriker and Norra Skogsägarna in the afternoon, where sustainability was in focus.

According to Anna Breman, chief economist at Swedbank, Sweden will have to make the most investment on the environmental side to achieve the UN's global goals and e.g. transport and fashion, are industries where investment needs to be made. Breman emphasizes that the forest is a great resource, we have it and can produce biofuels and become world leaders in this field. Christian Clemens, CEO of the BRA airline, believes the flight is important for the ability to live and work throughout the country. Clemens claims that it is important to give the customer the opportunity to travel sustainably and therefore BRA gives their passengers the opportunity to travel with biofuels.

Lars Winter, CEO Domsjö Fabriker emphasized that we consume 1.5 times more resources per person than the planet is capable of and a solution to the problem is the forest and the products that can be extracted from it. He also highlights the importance of utilizing the entire raw material, ranging from root to top, to create profitability and utilize forest resources in the best possible way to go from fossil dependence to biobased products. Winter presented the pilot study of a large-scale biorefinery plant, where the opportunity to scale up the production of sustainable solutions from the forest is created. Examples of this include biofuels, fish feed and viscose pulp.

Irene Bernald, Information and Public Relations Manager Audi says it is a global issue. It is therefore important for our region be highlighted since the knowledge and innovation power of green technology, clean energy and sustainable solutions in the region allows us to drive development towards a sustainable future.