from the president |
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Pierre Lapointe
President and CEO
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FPInnovations is pleased to have provided our leadership and input to help fill many of the knowledge gaps identified prior to the launch of the Future Bio-pathways Initiative. With the recent release of the Phase Two Bio-pathways report, we look forward to continuing our partnership with FPAC and NRCan to help develop the dialogue required among new industry partners to advance the forest industry’s involvement in the unfolding bio-economy.
We’ve done our homework. Beyond the
R & D, we now have the technologies to convert wood fibre into innovative and high value bio-products, including composite materials, specialty chemicals and bio-energy. As part of the forest industry’s transformation strategy, FPInnovations is committed to maintaining our leadership role in implementing and commercializing these new bio-products. This is a big step forward in leading Canada into the new bio-age.
The Phase Two report, entitled, The New Face of the Canadian Forest Industry: the Emerging Bio-Revolution, demonstrates how the Canadian forest products industry is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the new bio-economy and exploit a potential global market of around $200 billion for bio-energy, bio-chemicals and bio-materials that can be extracted from trees. These products include everything from renewable fuels to lightweight plastics to non-toxic chemicals and food additives.
FPInnovations is looking forward with great excitement to continuing to work positively and in partnership with both the federal and provincial governments toward transforming the Canadian forest sector and demonstrating the commercial potential of the most promising technologies, products and markets for new and existing forest products. Programs like FPInnovations’ Transformative Technologies Program (TTP) and its 14 pilot-scale demonstration projects are helping to bridge the gap between the market intelligence gathered in the Future Bio-pathways Initiative and developing economically viable technologies to help industry take advantage of identified opportunities.
While industry is already exploring opportunities and investing in these new opportunities, success in the bio-age will come from coordinated investment linked to a vision of what both the provincial and the federal governments want to achieve with their innovative and environmental agendas. The level of investment from both levels of government has already borne significant fruit but more must be done so that industry can produce long-term plans and share risks and rewards in a more vibrant, green, knowledge-intensive economy. For its part, industry must seek out partnerships with innovative companies outside the forest sector and build networks to bring bio-technologies to market more quickly.
Read the full report and executive summaries on Bio-pathways II at
www.fpinnovations.ca/bio-pathways.
14/06/11
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