Biofuels powering the future
Biofuels offer a climate-positive solution that society cannot afford to ignore. Panu Routasalo explains how UPM is spearheading efforts to replace carbon-intensive fossil energy with plant power. Thirteen years ago Panu Routasalo was working as an engineer in oil production. Around the same time, UPM also stood at a watershed point in its history. Squeezed by digitalisation, forestry was branded a sunset industry and doomed to a rapid demise. Prematurely, it turns out. Today forestry is a thriving sunrise industry, with UPM leading the pack as an innovator of sustainable wood-based alternatives to oil-based products. Routasalo heads this pioneering work in his current role as UPM’s Vice President of Biofuels.