Winners of Metsä Group’s Renew Metsä idea competition chosen
To find ideas for further developing sustainable operations in commercial forests, Metsä Group organised a competition called Renew Metsä in October and November 2023 for the owner-members of its parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative.
“We received many excellent ideas and proposals at different stages of maturity, and it was not easy to select the winners. All the ideas – especially those awarded – offer us valuable new perspectives and encourage us to continue to develop our services and operations in various ways. This will not be the last competition. A warm thanks to all the participants and congratulations to the winners,” says Silja Pitkänen-Arte, Metsä Group’s Sustainability Manager.
The competition sought new concrete ideas for boosting the varied use, biodiversity, climate resilience, vitality and water protection of commercial forests while also paying attention to economic considerations. The proposed ideas were assessed based on their innovativeness, feasibility, effectiveness, measurability and economic efficiency.
Metsäliitto Cooperative’s owner-members submitted at total of approximately 250 ideas to the competition. The winners were selected by a jury comprising Metsä Group’s employees.
The first prize, 5,000 euros, went to Antti Ylitalo from Kuopio. The winning idea concerns a regional network of forestry demonstration sites. The network, combining the digital and physical worlds in a novel way, could be used to present forest management methods and different stages of forestry as well as practical examples of ecologically sustainable measures.
The second prize, 3,000 euros, went to Ville Taipale from Lemi, whose idea is related to the visualisation and measuring of forestry operations. The new digital platform would enable more concrete illustrations and calculations of what various forestry measures mean in practice and how they will affect forests years from now, as well as what current and future economic impacts the measures have. The reporting tool could also be used to annually monitor the benefits for the environment.
The third prize, 1,000 euros, went to Matti Myllykoski from Siikalatva. His idea is related to the conditions for renewal on different sites. The idea would provide more accurate cost estimates and proposed measures, including for long-term forest plans.
Further information:
Silja Pitkänen-Arte, Sustainability Manager, Metsä Group Wood Supply and Forest Services, tel. +358 40 098 8177
Juha Laine, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Metsä Group Wood Supply and Forest Services, tel. +358 50 346 0350
Metsä Group’s Wood Supply and Forest Services
metsagroup.com/metsaforest
Metsä Group’s Wood Supply and Forest Services provides and develops the services offered to the members of Metsä Group's parent company, Metsäliitto Cooperative. The cooperative consists of more than 90,000 Finnish forest owners who together own about half of Finland’s private forests. We provide all the forest services required to engage in sustainable forest management and raise the value of forest assets.We procure all the wood used by Metsä Group from sustainably managed forests in the Baltic Sea region, most of it from our owner-members in Finland.
In 2022, our sales totalled EUR 2.1 billion, and we have around 750 employees. We promote a culture of diversity, equality and inclusion.
