Alternative Woods and Innovative Uses of Traditional Woods for Sustainable Wood-Based Products

Dear Colleagues,

Modern society is increasingly looking for high-performing, cost-effective, sustainable materials and products. Wood-based products are suitable to fit these requisites and are regularly sought after for many uses where they exhibit different properties, often simultaneously: lightness, mechanical strength, improved durability, fire resistance, decorative aspect, thermal and/or acoustic insulation, etc. Their application sectors are numerous, including caravans, marine and land transport, construction, and furniture.

Adopting alternative species, developing alternative uses for traditional species, and valorizing wood of non-standard sizes and/or quality can remarkably valorize lesser-known or underexploited timber and assortments. This is particularly relevant also to diminish the growing pressure on forest resources and to reduce the load on endangered or overused species and can result in new supply chains based on more efficient and legal sourcing of the raw material.

This Special Issue aims to collect cutting-edge research focused on the performance and sustainability of wood-based products that meet one or more of the abovementioned criteria. Wood-based products are intended here in their broadest sense, i.e., products made of wood alone or of wood bonded together with other wooden or non-wooden materials, including, for instance, traditional wood-based panels, sandwich structures, cross-laminated timber, products made of recycled wood materials, etc. Particular attention is addressed to studies that explore the performance of these products compared to established equivalent ones, taking into account applicable standards and regulations. Articles that analyze their environmental impact, sustainability, and economic feasibility are welcome as well.

Dr. Flavio Ruffinatto
Dr. Corrado Cremonini
Dr. Francesco Negro
Prof. Roberto Zanuttini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• alternative wood species
• characterization
• lesser-known timber species
• structural and non-structural uses
• sustainability
• new uses of wood
• wood-based products