Agenda 2020 Technology
Vision
The Agenda 2020 technology vision leverages
collaborative partnerships to drive innovation in the forest
products industry's processes, materials, and markets. Technology
objectives are defined to address shared industry and national
strategic goals. Agenda 2020's research, development and deployment
(RD&D) initiatives provide the foundation for new technology-driven
business models. The objective is to create options to meet
industry's competitive challenges, while contributing solutions
to strategic national needs associated with energy,
the environment, and the economy.
The Agenda 2020 technology vision builds on the forest products
industry’s strategic advantage as stewards of an abundant,
renewable and sustainable raw biomaterial:
forests. The industry also includes owners of the fundamental
infrastructure for converting these biomaterials. Thus, the
industry is uniquely positioned to produce new "green"
bio-based products -- fiber, fuels, chemicals -- without increasing
its current consumption of forest materials or disrupting
production of the traditional line of forest products. Advanced
technology will endow these new bio-products with "smart"
properties and high performance characteristics. Agenda 2020's
technology platforms are designed to use emerging technologies,
such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, coupled with breakthrough
advances in process and conversion technologies, to create
and capture value from both new and existing product streams
efficiently, cleanly, and economically.
The Forest
Products Industry Technology Roadmap, updated in early
2006, captures this vision and translates it into a set of
focus areas and R&D priorities for each Agenda 2020 technology
platform. The purpose of the Roadmap is to provide the research
community, and their funding organizations, with information
on the technical challenges and research needs that are considered
priorities by the U.S. forest products industry. The goal
is to stimulate collaborative, precompetitive research, development,
and deployment that will provide the foundation for new technology
driven business models that enable the industry to meet competitive
challenges, while also contributing solutions to strategic
national needs.
Agenda 2020 conducts regular
portfolio reviews to evaluate the benefits and impacts
of its technology agenda. High value is placed on technologies
that simultaneously enable increased revenue for industry,
while improving industry energy efficiency and environmental
performance.
The technology portfolio is organized around seven
core technology platforms:
