Three key take-aways from the presentation and our study, commissioned by the Swedish Forest Industries Foundation:

🔹 Climate and welfare efforts must go hand in hand: The survey shows that concern about climate change remains high among Europeans. There is public support for maintaining momentum towards the green transition. At the same time, reduced disposable income is a major concern for consumers at present. This highlights how important it is for the green transition to go hand in hand with social and economic welfare support. Already playing its part today, Europe’s forest industry can make an increasingly important contribution to sustainable development. ​ 

🔹 People want to replace fossil-based products with biobased: There is clear public support for replacing fossil-intensive products with biobased. 74% consider it important to replace fossil-based products versus bio-based to achieve the UN's sustainability goals. It’s also evident that a significant portion (77%) of consumers place considerable importance on the environmental impact on both products and their packaging when making purchasing decisions.

🔹 The knowledge of the forest’s full potential is low: European knowledge regarding forest natural resources is lacking. Despite the reality that European forest coverage has actually increased over the last decade, 65% believe that it has decreased. Additionally, there is limited understanding that wood products continue to store carbon throughout their life span; only 23% of respondents recognised this fact.