The challenges facing the forestry and timber industry and sustainable building with wood are the central focus of "Holzwende 2020plus". This three-year cross-disciplinary project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research through the Jülich project management organisation. The project objective was to significantly step up the pace of the future development of sustainable markets for wood as a renewable material in the fields of new building and refurbishment of old buildings. The central starting point was the targeted use of market development methods geared to sustainability goals. The core target was to improve the long-term competitiveness of the forestry and timber industry through new collaborations as well as customer and user integration.

What will be the nature of sustainable markets for wood as a building material in the future? And how can they be developed in a target-oriented manner?

To answer these questions, four implementation projects were carried out:

• "Developing regional markets for new building with wood",
• "Networks for refurbishment with wood",
• "Material alliances for future markets" and
• "Virtual SME".

These implementation projects were chosen to cover a range of different markets and to involve different constellations of key actors. The practical experience gained, the market development methods elaborated in the context of the "Holzwende 2020plus" project and the analyses of relevant trends were made available to other actors in the building and refurbishment sector as part of a broad transfer concept.

The results of the "Holzwende 2020plus" project are to be communicated via diverse channels to as many target groups as possible. The channels include:

• an online learning platform,
• a network of multipliers moving forward with concrete implementation,
• print and online publications,
• an interactive ecodesign toolbox "WOODPICKER" and
• events, university lectures, seminars and excursions on the subject.

The results of the "Holzwende 2020plus" project are also disseminated in diverse publications such as the book "Zukunftsmärkte für das Bauen mit Holz" (Future Markets for Building with Wood) and the Holzwende publication series.