ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS YOUNG PEOPLE ARE RECEPTIVE TO THE WOOD TRY
Benoit Jobbe-Duval is President of the National Association of companies of timber protection (ANEPROMA) Since April of 2009. This year, the Association has increased the number of partners in a 25%. After more than ten years of activity, some ups and downs and addressed complex fronts, ANEPROMA is a mature organization, compact and with many challenges ahead.
ANEPROMA recognizes the immense trajectory of Jaime Alcácer, its Honorary President, in its tireless work of promoting the use of wood and disseminating the correct protection of it in accordance with its use. "This Association is not conceivable without the figure of Jaime Alcácer," says Benoit Jobbé-Duval.; is a fighter, a reference for our entire sector".
Why is ANEPROMA created??
Our profession needed a strong Association. ANEPROMA defends national treated wood. We permanently insist that our industry consumes Spanish wood and that it be treated in the numerous autoclaves that exist in our country. Frequently enter wood treated with products that are prohibited in Spain. Also, these products are also not applied at the levels of demand that we have set here, because the biological risks that we have to cover are not the same that have to be covered beyond the Pyrenees, for a simple reason: the existence in our territory of termite and a climate very different from that of northern Europe.
Another of the main challenges of ANEPROMA is the promotion of wood as a very important material in today's society. There are still people who consider that using wood is contributing to deforestation. In tune with a magnificent document published by the CIS-Bois, European timber employers, we do not tire of transmitting the opposite: using wood is one of the key strategies to fight climate change.
The promotion and dissemination at all levels of treated wood must be constant and permanent. In fact, one of the first decisions of the current board has been the organization of events throughout Spain, coordinated by business groups and local administrations, to try to improve day by day the image of the treated wood.
I think that this great project of diffusion of treated wood is called 'Tour de ANEPROMA', and has already held its first meeting in Asturias...
Indeed, the ANEPROMA Tour brings together a series of simple key messages to clarify that wood consumption is necessary, and presents treated wood as an ideal material for applications in classes of use 2, 3 and 4; all this in order that administrations, builders and prescribers in general know it and, little by little, lose the fear of using it in their projects.
Who is ANEPROMA mainly targeting with this informative project??
The main recipients of our message on the Tour are the Administration, the Colleges of Architects and Engineering, This is, all those people who make a prescription and are likely to incorporate treated wood into their projects. It costs us a lot for engineers and architects to attend our calls; often, younger people are more receptive to this material. However, treated wood is used and much in public works on coasts, natural parks, City councils... which gives us to understand that the administrations are capturing and understanding our discourse.
Ideally, all the links of a work demand quality; the property, the prescriber, the construction manager and the builder. Administrations and architects have the ability to demand that treated wood be used, but all the professionals involved must have information and be aware of the importance of working with quality material.
Every City Council is a potential buyer of a construction in treated wood. From ANEPROMA we intend that no one is disappointed. We inform you about what you should demand.
What other actions does ANEPROMA plan to carry out in the year that now begins??
In the spring of 2010 the Basque town of Biarritz will host the WRI (International Research Group of Wood Protection); the world's largest congress on treated wood. All agents interested in the subject attend this event, which last year was based in Beijing. The WRI is a scientific congress from which emanate numerous communications and publications that will be the reference for the sector in the immediate future. ANEPROMA will present there, in collaboration with INIA and Mª Teresa de Troya, active member of WRI, a publication on the state of the art and the protection of its wood in Spain.
On the other hand, we are thinking of continuing with our "Tour" in the Basque Country, Navarre and Catalonia; areas that have already requested our presence, although the "Tour" will also be carried out by the rest of the Communities.
What is the spectrum or profile of companies adhering to ANEPROMA?
ANEPROMA has the virtue of grouping the entire guild related to treated wood. The Association welcomes carpenters interested in the treatment of wood, to companies that have facilities to do in-depth treatment, passing through firms specialized in curative treatment through traditional systems. ANEPROMA is not only aimed at companies that own autoclaves, although these are obviously the pillar of the Association.
How do you rate. the level of professionalism achieved, in general, by anEPROMA member companies?
The companies that make up ANEPROMA have become very professional in the course of these years, offering guarantees for the use of treated wood even in the most demanding applications. Short-term, appreciating the quality of a treatment is not easy; because there are colorless products and because checking the depth of a treatment involves destructive methods. That is why the seriousness and professionalism of the supplier of the treated wood is basic..
How has it affected the collective that you. represents the profound changes in legislation on biocidal products?
All the actors in the protection of wood have had to adapt to the new legislation. The current regulations have nothing to do with what was required of us a few years ago; at the product level, of processes and treatment technology. We've done our homework, we've caught up, and we have also had to defend a number of products that were questioned in Europe. Some have gone down in history, such as arsenic, but we have managed to make other active ingredients, minimally harmful within a correct use, will continue to be accepted. In general, every chemical that went to the treated wood sector had a bad image in itself. We have proven with a lot of work that well-used chemistry is beneficial and harmless in our industry..
What recent actions has the Association taken in the field of training??
With the contribution of numerous members of the Association, ANEPROMA has published a Manual of the Applicator of Wood Protectors dedicated to students who receive the professional qualification that allows them to use biocides. In the last two years we have carried out several courses on the application of chemical products in wood and we lacked a specific support to guide and guide the students, that has materialized in the realization of the Manual.
Are we prepared to properly meet any demand related to treated wood?
Spain is technologically prepared to meet any requirement on treated wood. Information is available, there are standardized and proven treatment methods and the treatment products comply with regulatory requirements and are registered with the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs. All the ingredients to work well are at hand. It depends on each professional that they are used correctly.
In what situations is treated wood applicable??
Treated wood is applicable in agriculture (Fences, Stakes, Trellises...), urban furniture (banks, Paper, children's areas...), Infrastructure (fear remover, acoustic barriers, Bridges, Gateways), construction (Covers, Structures...)... Life takes place largely abroad, and the exterior offers countless possibilities to place treated wood.
Do you observe. that treated wood has a path as a material in the immediate future?
As a CO warehouse2, wood will be the main material in the construction of the future. The consumption of the forest mass is a guarantee of this storage and the generation of new sinks in the future.. Not using the wood that Nature puts at our disposal would mean that this forest mass, medium-term, will only serve to emit more CO2 to the atmosphere, since it becomes decrepit and goes from giving way or2 to the medium and absorb CO2 to consume OR2 and emit CO2 contrary to what people think, if we think about it calmly it is very similar to the cycle of humans in which when we get older we lose vitality.
We cannot ignore asking him about the crisis. Is it also affecting companies in this sector??
I know that all the companies of the Association are going through difficult times. No one is exempt from the scourge of the crisis. In these conditions it is difficult to prosper. At best, companies are maintained, but all suffer from difficulties of all kinds. For this reason, the main work that ANEPROMA can develop is to continue its work of promotion and dissemination on treated wood, to expand your potential market in Spain.
Together with Confemadera, our Secretary General, Jose Miguel Solis, has been overturned with ANEPROMA. I trust that your effort and drive will serve to advance in this regard.. My greatest wish for 2010 is that the almost 200 firms that in Spain own autoclaves join this project to support each other in this common goal.