European Wood has been awarded the Schweighofer Innovation Prize for its initiatives in the field of marketing and education in Asia.

Jan Söderlind, chairman of European Wood and managing director at the Nordic Timber Council, said: “The prize is great proof that by combining our efforts, we can achieve substantial results. And we have to. The boom on the building markets, especially in China, is such a big challenge that we have to join forces.”

European Wood is a collaboration between the Nordic Timber Council representing Finland, Sweden and Norway, proHolz Austria, FrenchTimber and the German Timber Promotion Fund, Holzabsatzfonds.

The project, started in 2004, runs in co-operation with CEI-Bois, the European Confederation of Woodworking Industries.

The European partners already have two demonstration houses in China – one on wall constructions in Chengdu and the other on roof constructions in the centre of Beijing – giving Chinese builders a tangible way to learn about building with wood.

Mr Söderlind said: “In China we are facing hard tasks. In this part of the world, solid stone and concrete buildings are the traditional ways of building a house. Here we have not only to convince all buyers or clients, we have to influence the modification of building regulations in a way that building with wood is able to give all its advantages to the people there.”

European Wood has already seen one new wood construction standard approved by the Ministry of Construction in China, listing European species as recommended, alongside domestic and North American species. Other standards and building codes are under development.

Another winner was Irish company TreeMetrics Ltd and the University of Freiburg which took an award in the forestry category for developing laster scanners and image processing technology.

The system captures 3D images of individual stems, which can then be measured later in the office and analysed. It is expected to help forest owners and buyers in supply chain analysis, forest valuation and optimisation of forest harvesting.