Brazil is one of the largest producers of medium-density fibreboard (MDF) in the world, and also the MDF has the highest domestic consumption and production rate in the country. MDF applications are ...highlighted into residential and commercial furniture design and also a wide participation in the building sector. This study aimed to propose ways of improving the environmental cradle-to-gate life-cycle of one cubic meter MDF panel by means of a life-cycle assessment (LCA) study. Complying with requirements of ISO 14040 and 14,044 standards, different MDF manufacturing scenarios were modelled using Umberto® v.5.6 software and the Ecoinvent v.2.2 life-cycle inventory (LCI) database for the Brazilian context. Environmental and human health impacts were assessed by using the CML (2001) and USEtox (2008) methods. The evaluated impact categories were: acidification, global warming, ozone layer depletion, abiotic resource depletion, photochemical formation of tropospheric ozone, ecotoxicity, eutrophication and human toxicity. Results identified the following hotspots: gas consumption at the thermal plant, urea-formaldehyde resin, power consumption, wood chip consumption and wood chip transportation to the plant. The improvement scenario proposals comprised the following actions: eliminate natural gas consumption at the thermal plant, reduce electrical power consumption, reduce or replace urea-formaldehyde resin consumption, reduce wood consumption and minimize the distance to wood chip suppliers. The proposed actions were analysed to verify the influence of each action on the set of impact categories. Among the results, it can be noted that a joint action of the proposed improvements can result in a total reduction of up to 38.5% of impacts to OD, 34.4% to AD, 31.2% to ET, and 30.4% to HT. Finally, MDF was compared with particleboard production in Brazil, and additional opportunities to improve the MDF environmental profile were identified.
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•We analysed an LCA case study of MDF panel production in Brazil.•The main environmental hotspots were identified and discussed.•Five alternative improvement scenarios were proposed.•It was performed a comparative LCA of MDF with particleboard.
La merranderie fait partie intégrante de la filière tonnelière : c’est elle qui transforme les grumes en merrains, planches de bois nécessaires à la réalisation de barriques. La tonnellerie fera ...ensuite de ces merrains des douelles et naîtra un tonneau. Dans un marché mondialisé, les Français sont leaders mondiaux avec une production de barriques et autres contenants en bois de chêne. Si la scierie s’avère être une activité liée aux régions sylvicoles, il n’en est pas de même pour la merranderie où la concentration des établissements s’opère aux alentours des seules forêts de Chênes sessile et pédonculé, ces essences doivent être fendues et sciées selon un procédé particulier qui différencie les merranderies des scieries. Cette profession atypique implique des procédures et des réflexions que cet article propose de mettre en exergue. Messages clés• La merranderie fait partie intégrante de la filière tonnelière.• Elle fournit les merrains nécessaires à la fabrication des barriques.• Son fonctionnement implique des procédures spécifiques.
Les ventes de bois des forêts publiques en 2022 Office national des forêts, Direction Commerciale Bois et Services
Revue forestière française,
09/2023, Letnik:
74, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Dans un contexte économique très dynamique et complexe, et malgré une moindre mobilisation en volume, le chiffre d’affaires bois des forêts publiques de métropole dépasse 661 millions d’euros en ...2022, avec un prix moyen apparent accru de 36 % (59,9 € par m3). Le prix du Chêne progresse fortement, tiré davantage par le merrain que par les autres qualités, comme celui des résineux blancs néanmoins affecté à l’automne par la baisse du marché de la construction. Le secteur merrain valorise la futaie régulière de Chêne dont les savoirs et savoir-faire viennent d’être inventoriés au Patrimoine culturel immatériel (PCI) de la France en juin 2022. Le Hêtre et les Pins bénéficient également de hausse, ainsi que le bois énergie. 40 % des volumes vendus sont fournis en contrats d’approvisionnement, en progression de 5 %. Messages clés :• En 2022, le contexte a été très dynamique bien que complexe.• Le prix moyen du m3 a augmenté de 36 %.• Le secteur merrain et bois énergie ont été particulièrement en hausse.• La vente en contrat d’approvisionnement a augmenté de 5 %.
Les forêts dans la région Grand Est représentent un enjeu économique et territorial considérable. Les dépérissements subis par ces forêts depuis 2018 ont décimé des milliers d’hectares et concernent ...la plupart des essences présentes, à commencer par l’Épicéa en plaine, très touché par les attaques de scolytes. Les conséquences pour la filière bois sont considérables, avec la récolte anticipée de millions de m3, l’engorgement des marchés et les difficultés pour valoriser un bois de qualité dépréciée. Des solutions d’urgence ont pu être trouvées pour faire face à la crise. Des pistes d’actions sont avancées pour prévenir d’autres crises, dont l’occurrence est prévisible avec les conséquences des changements climatiques. Messages clésLa crise « scolytes » récente est liée à des conditions météorologiques exceptionnelles.Elle a provoqué des dépérissements inédits d’épicéas.Les conséquentes sur la filière bois sont très importantes.
The demand for wood has increased in recent years due to new technical possibilities and environmental concerns. This paper provides an analysis of the factors that affect the use of wood in the ...construction sector, and an assessment of their importance in individual countries and for groups of stakeholders. The study covers the technical, societal, political, economic, and gender aspects of wood construction, with the aim of increasing global understanding regarding national differences, the current situation, and the potential for further development. The subject was investigated using a survey, and the most important opportunities for and barriers to growth in the use of wood in the construction sector were selected, following a statistical analysis. The results indicate strong regional and cultural differences regarding the acceptance of some of the opportunities and barriers related to the development of wood construction. The findings indicate that there is a need to promote wood construction based on its technical and economic benefits rather than its societal ones. On the other hand, the current societal barriers should be addressed as a priority, together with the establishment of common and harmonized policies. The results of this study, therefore, will contribute to the generation of regional-sensitive information that can be useful for policymakers when updating the building codes in their individual countries.
With Industry 4.0, we are entering the digital age, which will significantly change the profiles of employees and their necessary competencies. This also affects education in the wood sector. The aim ...of the research was to find out which teaching methods in learning motivate representatives of generations Y and Z at different levels of education (from vocational to master’s degree education) in the wood sector, which form of education is most suitable and what younger people think about distance learning. To this end, we conducted a survey using social media and an e-classroom. The results showed that learners are most motivated by an environment that strives for development, is safe and stable, and is also characterized by teamwork rather than a competitive environment. We did not find much difference in motivational factors between groups at different levels of education or forms of education (fulltime, lifelong). Otherwise, the main motivation of learners with regard to the wood sector, regardless of generation, is the internal incentives of the individual, while the external incentives differ more between generations.
In the last three decades forecasting bankruptcy of enterprises has been an important and difficult problem, used as an impulse for many research projects (Ribeiro et al. 2012). At present many ...methods of bankruptcy prediction are available. In view of the specific character of economic activity in individual sectors, specialised methods adapted to a given branch of industry are being used increasingly often. For this reason an important scientific problem is related with the indication of an appropriate model or group of models to prepare forecasts for a given branch of industry. Thus research has been conducted to select an appropriate model of Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA), best adapted to forecasting changes in the wood industry. This study analyses 10 prediction models popular in Poland. Effectiveness of the model proposed by Jagiełło, developed for all industrial enterprises, may be labelled accidental. That model is not adapted to predict financial changes in wood sector companies in Poland.
The generally known Altman model showed the greatest effectiveness in the identification of enterprises at risk of bankruptcy. However, that model was burdened with one of the greatest errors in the classification of healthy enterprises as sick. The best effectiveness in the identification of enterprises not threatened with bankruptcy was found for forecasts prepared using the Prusak 2 model. However, forecasts based on those models were characterised by erroneous classification of sick companies as healthy. The model best fit to predict the financial situation of Polish wood sector companies was the Poznań model
Pz = 3.562 · X
+ 1.588 · X
+ 4.288 · X
+ 6.719 · X
- 2.368
where:
- net income / total assets;
- (current assets - stock) / current liabilities;
- fixed capital / total assets
- income from sales / sales revenue).
New innovative technologies of Industry 4.0 are the key to the future development of the furniture industry, which is outdated because of its atypical production and small-series production. For ...applying the novel trends of Industry 4.0 to the furniture sector, the methodical support of managers, the key users of these technologies, is essential. As there is a lack of knowledge regarding implementation of Industry 4.0, this study focuses on the evaluation of the current status of furniture companies in terms of production structure and Industry 4.0 benefits/threats with the aim of proposing methodological solutions for the implementation of this trend across different-sized enterprises. Data are collected using conduct-structured interviews with project managers who describe their own experience with Industry 4.0 implementation in central Europe. All interviews are analyzed using qualitative content analysis. According to the stakeholders, innovative production and non-production technologies are essential for their enterprises. Application of such technologies increases the efficiency of the whole operation by 30%–50% over the five years since the first innovations were introduced, especially in enterprises with atypical production and large enterprises. This study should serve as the tool for adapting the environmental changes and promoting the innovation approaches of the Industry 4.0 strategies on the central European level.
Although micro-enterprises represent most of the enterprises across different sectors, they are excluded from official statistics on innovation activities. What we know about micro-enterprises is ...based on smaller quantitative and qualitative studies that are country- and sector-specific. To understand the innovation activities of Slovenian enterprises in the forest-wood sector, we conducted our own quantitative study in 2019 based on the Eurostat’s Community Innovation Survey (CIS) questionnaire. Based on responses from 294 enterprises, we compare how micro-enterprises and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) differ in innovation strategies, product, and process innovations, co-operation with other organisations, innovation activities, and innovations with environmental benefits. The results indicate that, in some respects, enterprises with two to nine employees are at least as innovative as small to medium enterprises, or even more so. We argue that innovation surveys should lower the employee count threshold to attain better representative insight into the innovation landscape.
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