Uusi puu is a community of over 20 Finnish organisations committed to increasing awareness of the wood-based bioeconomy among political decision-makers and influencers. ‘Wood-based’ is an alien concept for many people who would like to have more information on the subject. The main sponsor of the project is the Finnish Forest Foundation.
The purpose of the Uusi Puu – New Wood 2021 Competition was to promote new wood-based solutions. A total of 23 entries were submitted of which a jury, comprising members of parliament and representatives of business and research, selected six for the finals.
The finalists were: Aesthetically appealing and multi-functional biomaterial (Sulpac); Sustainable food service packaging for Norwich City F.C. (Pyroll & Kotkamills); Wound care dressing made from nanocellulose (UPM Biomedicals); Natural sweetener from birchwood (KoivuBioTech); Biofiber-based carbon-negative acoustic panel (Lumis Bioboard); and Plastic-replacing wood-based packaging material (Paptic).
Manifesto produced the videos presenting each finalist. The two-minute clips explained what the entry was all about, what challenges it sought to respond to and what market potential and wider social implications it offered.
The brief included the completion of the screenplay, shooting, project management as well as video editing and compilation to create the finished video for presentation in the Uusi Puu – New Wood 2021 Competition finals. A special challenge posed by many of the videos was how to illustrate the new, rather abstract uses of wood in a way that was comprehensible and interesting to viewers.
“Manifesto’s finalis videos helped the jury assess the entries. At the same time, they give the public a glimpse of the wide range of uses that wood-based products are suitable for. Cooperation with Manifesto’s video production team was smooth and we in the project management were very pleased with the high quality of the videos,” says Virpi Korhonen, Chief Executive Director of the Uusi Puu Association.
The winner of the Uusi Puu – New Wood 2021 Competition was UPM Biomedicals’ FibDex wound care dressing made from nanocellulose. To see the videos that made it to the finals, click here.