This is a school campaign for Finnish 8th graders (14-15) and high school students (16-18) representing forest industry’s study and working opportunities, circular economy, basics of forest management, role of forests in mitigating climate change and products made from wood. « School ambassadors », meaning forest industry experts from different occupations and companies, visit schools either physically or virtually. There is a wood product portfolio involved in the campaign. Each attending school gets a case full of products made from wood. The case is designed to be a part of teaching different subjects: chemistry, mathematics, arts, student counselling etc.
The campaign has been going on since 2013. 25 000 students each year are reached, which is half of the age group in Finland.
Key stakeholders:
– Finnish Forest Industries Federation
– Forest Product Engineers
– Finnish Forest Association
– Metsä Group
– Stora Enso UPM
– Versowood
– DS Smith Sappi Kirkniemi
– Koskisen Oy
– Pölkky Oy
– Tornator
– Corex
– Delfort
Specific Benefits:
Excellent way to reach big groups of young people and share knowledge with both students and teachers/councillors. During the visit, the students get a clearer idea of what today’s forest industry is really like: its diverse study and job opportunities, how sustainability is related to everything the industry does, and all the products that can be manufactured from wood.
Conditions for success:
Someone to coordinate the campaign (in this case we have a coordinator from FFIF’s comms team).
Campaign web page:
https://www.mahdollisuuksienmetsa.fi/en_us/index.html