IFE Wood for Future and the University of Granada have actively participated in the Treeconomics, Wood and Sustainable Economy Conference, led by its coordinator, Antolino Gallego, professor at the University of Granada. Treeconomics, held in Madrid on June 22, organized by the European Poplar Association (Propopulus) and sponsored by the bank ING, has brought together experts and actors in the sector with the aim of giving visibility to the contribution of wood in the development of a sustainable bioeconomy and climate change mitigation, especially in the construction sector.

The opening was given by Joris van Acker, President of ProPopulus and Professor at the University of Ghent, where he directs the Wood Laboratory, who described poplar as the tree of the 21st century, Carlos García Peredo, General Manager of Structured Finance at ING Spain & Portugal, and María Torres-Quevedo García de Quesada, Deputy Assistant Director of Forestry Policy and Combating Desertification at the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.

Ana Belén Noriega, Secretary General of PEFC Spain, also participated in the conference, highlighting the importance of sustainable forest management in the fight against climate change; Juan Picos, Forestry Engineer and professor at the University of Vigo, who raised the challenges of innovation in wood in the future; and the architect Julen Pérez, Senior Associate at Waugh Thistleton Architects Ltd. in the United Kingdom, who gave the talk “Construction revolution: the age of wood”, in which he highlighted the continued growth and popularity of the use of wood in construction today.

The event included two round tables on the social, economic and environmental impact of forests in Spain, moderated by David Álvarez García, Executive Director of Ecoacsa, and on the importance of trees in our lives, moderated by Juan Fernández González, Director of Strategic Financing at ING Spain & Portugal. Participants included the Center for Forest Science and Technology of Catalonia, the Official Association of Forestry Engineers, the Platform Together for Forests, the City Council of Orea (Guadalajara), the Garnica Plywood Group, Leroy Merlin Spain, María Lafuente, Sustainable Designer and Multidisciplinary Artist, the City Council of Madrid, and the ETS of Building Engineering of the University of Granada through LIFE Wood for Future. The conference was closed by Pedro Garnica, former President of ProPopulus and President of the Garnica Group, a leading company in the wood and poplar industry at European level.