La Foresta Soc. Coop. is the perfect example of how a forest enterprise will look in the future. Investment, that were driven by necessity and were focused on education and knowledge, helped this cooperative company to survive during harsh times and to grow as big as it is now. “We set ourselves as first and the only interlocutor in the biomass and heating plants’ sector, here in the Susa Valley; now we’re spreading our knowledge, gained over the past years, all over Italy transferring our knowledge and making new, crucial networks” states Giorgio Talachini La Foresta’s director and owner.

La Foresta Soc. Coop. is a 25 years old company that started as a normal forest cooperative company that used to produce timber and to do forestry jobs in public and private lands working with public procurements. But it hasn’t been always easy for the Talachini’s cooperative company. In fact, he continues saying: “When the public procurement went down, we lost a big share of our income and we decided to invest all we had left to learn everything about plants engineering and installations. Now, more than 10 years later, I can say that those investments definitely payed off”.

To date, only a 20% of the activities carried on by the cooperative can be defined as timber production and forestry jobs and for the remaining 80% of their activities, they’re dealing with woody biomass for energy purposes and all the aspects related to the sector. In fact, they’re managing a total of 20 heating plants all over Italy, all supplied by local forest enterprises, making the entire process economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. In addition, they’re directly responsible for the supply of wood chips of a fair share of plants that are nearby the cooperative headquarter, in Susa (TO) right in the middle of the homonymous Valley, reducing the transport within a radius of 35 km.

In 2012 the company started to sell the wood chips as energy using the energy contracting sale method, becoming the second company in Europe to use this energy sale method using certified wood coming from sustainable forestry. Now, after almost 10 years of experience gained in the sector, they’re able to provide services to other companies interested in this kind of sale method and plants, providing also their readymade and easy-to-install heating systems.

Talachini’s flagship is the Pomaretto’s heating plant that heats up the Pomaretto’s city hospital, the town hall and several other buildings. The total output is 600 kW and it’s fully fuelled by local wood chips. The cooperative company La Foresta created a brand-new limited liability partnership exclusively for this project involving the local forest enterprise that is responsible of the supply of the woody biomass, within 30km distance and is owner of one third the entire facility.

La Foresta Soc. Coop. is now a leading company in the biomass heating sector and is already projected into the future.