CEI-Bois hosted the online Final Conference of the European-funded project Good Wood on the 9 of December 2020.  The project was conducted under the leadership of Confapi, the Italian Confederation of the small and medium enterprises, and carried out between February 2019 and December 2020.

The Good Wood Project was aimed at fostering social dialogue for the sustainable development of the wood sector, by carrying out workshops, seminars, study visits involving social partners in the project countries (Italy, Portugal and Bulgaria). In parallel, the project’s partners carried out a desk and field research, which was officially presented during the event by Centro Studi G. Tagliacarne.

The Conference was opened by the CEI-Bois Chair Mr Ek who confirmed that CEI-Bois commitment to the main objective of this project “to foster the transition of the woodworking sector towards increased environmental sustainability through, among other things, social dialogue between employers and workers. This is more important than ever, as the industry and entire economy is looking for pathways to a sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The event was followed by a keynote speech on the EU Green Deal and the implications of the Woodworking Industries by Mr Jeremy Wall from DG GROW (Unit C-2: Resource Efficiency & Raw Materials).

The Final Conference was devoted to the presentation of the result of the project activities. Maurizio Casasco, President of CONFAPI stated: “The Good Wood project that Confapi and all partners have carried out with commitment and passion, by involving European, national and local stakeholders, had the aim of enhancing and strengthening the social dialogue as a tool to facilitate the transition towards green and circular economy objectives of companies in the wood and furniture sector. The current historical moment requires extraordinary and urgent measures from the European Union, that should consider the full involvement of all the actors, including employers and trade unions organizations…. Along with EU objectives, the project aimed at training and informing the actors involved, with particular attention to new technologies to encourage innovation in both production processes and products, also through the requalification of the employees in the wood-furniture sector “.

The event ended with a Panel session around the subject of “How the Woodworking Sector contributes to the Green Deal and Green Jobs, what can be improved, how the Social dialogue can improve it?” and a very fruitful Q&A exchange with the audience.

The Good Wood Project, notes for a Green Social Dialogue, funded by the European Union, aims at responding through the strengthening of the social dialogue to a reorganization of production and management in the wood sector, which goes towards a sustainable economy in the labour market.
The reinforcement of the social dialogue at a national and EU level will support a positive management in order to merge the flexibility needs to businesses with the security needed by the employees.