The Slovene forests are excellent in their social and environmental role, whereas their commercial role remains underexploited. The use of timber as an environmentally acceptable raw material, renewable energy source and energy saving material nowadays represents a special value.

The table shows a comparison between the production of four building materials (sawn wood, steel, concrete and aluminium). It is clearly shown that wood is ecologically the most acceptable building material.

The amount of carbon released in the manufacture of building materials compared to the amount stored in the material itself

Timber is a great natural potential for Slovenia, as it provides an opportunity of employment in the wood processing industry especially in the rural areas. Timber industry is one of traditional manufacturing branches having both absolute (forest) and comparative advantages over the rest of the branches. It is one of the rare branches that exploit domestic raw materials. As a natural material wood disposes over numerous advantages over other materials in cultivation, processing and final use. Mechanical processing of wood in small and large wood processing plants does not pollute the environment and it gets the energy for its machine arrangements from own wood remains and the excess of pure energy from the system can even be made available to other energy consumers.