Fungi
Force

What does the world of wood look like and how can it be improved?

I was then working as the director of a company that imported FSC-certified wood from Africa. That seemed like a good thing on the surface, but I was really shocked by the world of timber traders. It turned out that no one was concerned with delivering a good, sustainable product. Every penny was pinched and the FSC rules were blurred and fiddled with constantly. I also discovered that the wood industry uses a lot of chemical coatings that are toxic for humans and nature alike. Wood is a beautiful product, but once cut it needs protection against the weather. Without weatherproofing, the wood will become damp, and mould will grow and eat the wood. To prevent this, we paint, varnish, or impregnate the wood. But this is always nasty, chemical stuff that ends up destroying a beautiful natural product. 

How did you then go about ensuring that wood remains a beautiful natural product? What solution did you develop?

I met Dr. Michael Sailer, a German scientist who worked for TNO after his PhD research. He discovered that a naturally occurring and completely harmless fungus - called Aureobasidium Pullulans – can also protect wood. The fungus attaches to the wood surface, forming a permanent protective layer against sunlight. And in this way, it repels any other harmful fungi from the wood. Sailer looked for companies that were interested in further developing this application and bringing it to market. I thought it was a great story and saw opportunities to develop a sustainable alternative to the existing chemical supply of coatings and varnishes. To really make a difference. 

You help to protect wood using a natural process. How did you bring this to market? Is it already a commercially viable product?

We are now on the market and our product is available for sale. But that didn't happen without a fight. The regulations in our country make it difficult to develop sustainable alternatives. When you develop a product like ours, at some stage you run into the Crop Protection and Biocide Admission Board (CTGB). This institution was devised to protect consumers against dangerous products. But in my experience, they - unintentionally – end up protecting the existing industry against newcomers. 

Take Roundup for example, a weed killer known to be a terrible poison that kills just about everything it meets. Terrible for the environment, and still this product has been allowed back on the market. While we get bogged down in an impossible maze of rules and regulations, we were busy bringing a fully circular and natural product to the market! 

New products first have to be submitted to extensive testing. The test program lasts 4 to 5 years and costs a few million euros – not exactly feasible for a small entrepreneur. That’s how the biggest companies, helped by government regulations, hold back all kinds of innovations. I was very disappointed by how difficult it is to bring a sustainable innovation to the market. But fortunately, we came to an agreement with the CTGB. We now have Xyhlo as a brand, which is our B2B branch. And we sell the bio coating to consumers under the name Fungi Force. 

Today you have an environmentally friendly product for both consumers and the business market. You already mentioned some challenges that you have been able to overcome. What are the biggest dilemmas you currently face?

We started our B2B arm first and we quickly learned that we weren’t just selling a new product, but also promoting a change in behaviour. Contractors and builders don’t embrace innovation, they prefer to keep doing what they have always done. That way they know what to expect. 

Look, our product must attach itself to the wood of its own accord. And that takes a while. If you use a traditional varnish, it contains a chemical to help it attach and dry quickly. That makes it nice and easy to use. With a bio coating this

works differently, and you must wait longer for it to dry. You also must take the weather into account, because if it rains heavily and the coating has not yet dried properly, there is a risk it will wash off. Ideally the coating takes place somewhere sheltered. In that way our product requires a different way of working. 

The construction world is not that dynamic, and the readiness to adapt to a new way of working turned out to be a much bigger hurdle than I had anticipated. So, in addition to the bio coating for consumers, we decided to expand our B2B range with fully varnished planks. We have developed a new production line where we varnish planks and then dry them in the factory with UV. Offering our customers ready to go, sustainably treated planks, it makes it easier to choose our product. 

Looking back, I started off with a bang, acting from a green heart. Only, I presented the solution too theoretically and people did not find fungi an attractive story. Over time, I realized that my potential customer base needed time to adjust their mindset and absorb what we were offering.