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The Canadian forestry sector plays an essential role in our environmental, social and economic prosperity, employing over 180,000 Canadians and contributing $25.2B to Canada’s GDP in 2020. Canada is proudly recognized as a global leader in sustainably produced forestry products. Investment in digital technologies helps Canada’s world-class forestry companies, such as Mosaic Forest Management and Canfor strengthen their global competitiveness and turn sustainability leadership and leading ESG performance, into a long-term growth advantage.
Mosaic and Canfor, working in partnership with Lim Geomatics, are building a ‘first of its kind,’ satellite-linked Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform to modernize the timber harvesting process in remote locations. Using a network of smart telemetry devices, data relating to machine operations is captured, communicated via satellite, and analyzed via a business intelligence platform. From a sustainability perspective, this powerful tool supports better decision-making, and ensures that critical environmental and cultural factors such as sensitive ecosystems, wildlife zones, and Indigenous cultural features, are strictly respected and protected.
Mosaic and Canfor also see this project as an investment in productivity. The ability to measure performance by operator, by machine and by specific land characteristics such as terrain and tree sizes, means the companies can make smarter business decisions and establish benchmarks for thousands of operators and contractors harvesting in multiple different settings.
According to Jeff Zweig, President & CEO of Mosaic Forest Management, “The technology we are building enables Mosaic to draw insights we did not have before. We understand machine performance across a variety of terrain on a highly granular basis. Our linked network of smart telemetry devices opens the door to two-way communications with our various machines and equipment, moving us one step closer to autonomous harvesting.”
Mosaic and Canfor also participate in the Asia Competence for Tech Professionals program to grow relationships and strengthen export strategies in Asia markets.
Learn more about the Forest Machine Connectivity project.
“For a mid-sized Canadian company, grassroots research and development can be challenging. The Digital Supercluster provides the ideal investment framework to de-risk our spend while accelerating our pursuit of new technologies that increase productivity and support more sustainable practices.”