Invitation to Jean-Luc Sandoz’s Two Conferences: Sylvatest & Carbon Neutrality
The Wood of Tomorrow: Innovation, Performance and Carbon Neutrality
We are pleased to invite you to two online conferences presented by Jean-Luc Sandoz, an engineer, researcher, and renowned specialist in timber construction, structural engineering, and wood utilization technologies.
Through these two complementary conferences, Jean-Luc Sandoz will share his expertise, innovations, and vision of the major current and future challenges facing the forest and wood sector.
1. Sylvatest: Measuring Wood Quality Using Ultrasonic Ultrasound!
How can the mechanical quality of wood be assessed without damaging it? How can this natural resource be better sorted, characterized, and utilized? This conference will introduce Sylvatest*, a technology developed beginning in the late 1980s and based on ultrasonic measurement of wood properties.*
Summary: Wood is a remarkable material, available in a wide variety of hardwood and softwood species. When used as a structural material, wood exhibits significant mechanical variability that must be managed to filter out weaker pieces while making the most of the highest-quality material. Non-destructive technologies have therefore been developed to measure mechanical quality accurately.
This technology is now available as a mobile phone application that controls the probes via Bluetooth and automatically records all the results.
This technology is now available as a mobile application that controls the probes via Bluetooth and automatically records all the results.
Sylvatest is used in many sectors of the wood industry, from forestry to sawmills, as well as for timber structures, the assessment of heritage buildings, and the reuse of salvaged wood for new structural applications.
2. Carbon Neutrality: Timber and Bio-Based Construction in Support of Carbon Neutrality
How can timber construction and bio-based materials make a concrete contribution to carbon neutrality? This second conference will examine the strategic role of the forest and wood sector in the transition toward a decarbonized economy, exploring both carbon storage and emissions reduction, as well as the evolution of construction systems.
Summary: Every country in the world is concerned with the goal of carbon neutrality, which means increasing carbon storage while reducing CO₂ emissions. The forest and wood sector plays a highly strategic role in both aspects of carbon neutrality.
In terms of carbon storage, planting trees makes it possible to capture more CO₂, whether in forests, through the establishment of new forested areas, or in urban environments. With climate change and global warming, forests—which are part of the solution—are also becoming victims, due to insect infestations such as bark beetles and through the impact of forest fires. Forests and tree-planting strategies must therefore be completely reconsidered on a zone-by-zone basis.
In terms of emissions, timber and bio-based construction using materials such as straw, clay, or even charred wood can help avoid CO₂ emissions associated with conventional materials such as cement, metals, and plaster. Wood should be used throughout all structures above the slab-on-grade, in solid wood or charred wood cladding, in exterior joinery, in parquet flooring, and also in partition walls.
Several pilot projects will be presented as examples of these essential solutions for the future and as ways of taking a decisive step toward carbon neutrality.
Within timber-based solutions themselves, we will see that the principle of « more engineering, less material » also applies to the use of local resources within a circular economy, with low-tech materials such as sawmill boards assembled without glue.
Practical Information
💻 Format: Online conferences
📅 Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
🕘 Time: 9:00 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.
🎙️ Program
- 9:00–10:00 a.m.: Conference 1 — Sylvatest: Measuring Wood Quality Using Ultrasonic Ultrasound
- 10:00–10:10 a.m.: Break
- 10:10–11:10 a.m.: Conference 2 — Timber and Bio-Based Construction in Support of Carbon Neutrality
🔗 Connection link: https://ulaval.zoom.us/j/63027162283?pwd=9Jp6sYguWotR9n7M7u6kpXranUjiM6.1 (ID de réunion : 630 2716 2283; Code secret : 749612).
These two conferences offer complementary perspectives on the future of wood: first, gaining a better understanding of and characterizing the material in order to make better use of it through non-destructive testing technologies; and second, making better use of wood and bio-based resources to contribute to the decarbonization of the construction sector.
We invite you to join us to discover these innovations, deepen your knowledge, and exchange with Jean-Luc Sandoz on the challenges, technologies, and solutions that will shape the timber construction of tomorrow.
We look forward to seeing you online!
Biography of the Speaker
Jean-Luc Sandoz — An Exceptional Career Dedicated to Wood
Originally from the Haut-Doubs region of France, Jean-Luc Sandoz has built his professional career around a strong conviction: the better we understand wood, the better we can make use of it in construction.
After practical training in carpentry, cabinetmaking, and timber construction, he earned an engineering degree in wood science and industries from ENSTIB (École Nationale Supérieure des Technologies et des Industries du Bois). He then continued his research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), where he completed a doctoral thesis on the grading and reliability of structural timber using ultrasound, under the supervision of Professor Julius Natterer. He obtained his PhD in 1990.
As a researcher and later a professor at EPFL, he conducted research focusing in particular on the non-destructive characterization of wood, structural reliability, and the optimization of large-span timber structures. He also contributed to the education and training of numerous engineers and to the dissemination of knowledge in the field of timber construction.
In 1999, he left academia to devote himself fully to the development of his companies specializing in engineering, technological innovation, consulting and assessment, and timber construction. He notably heads Concept Bois Technologie SA in Switzerland and was instrumental in establishing several companies within the CBS-Lifteam group.
Since the late 1980s, Jean-Luc Sandoz has been actively involved in international symposia dedicated to the non-destructive testing (NDT) of wood, as a researcher, contributor, and organizer. Through this work, he has contributed to the development and international dissemination of non-destructive wood characterization methods.
Jean-Luc Sandoz is also the author and co-author of scientific publications and reference works on timber construction. His research notably led to the development of Sylvatest, a non-destructive technology for measuring wood quality using ultrasound, as well as several other innovations and patents in the field of timber structures and wood technologies.
Today, his experience covers a broad range of fields, including wood science and technology, structural engineering, architectural design, industrial prefabrication, timber construction systems, the assessment of existing structures, project management, and environmental challenges.
Throughout his career, he has also participated in international projects and assessments, ranging from contemporary large-span structures to heritage buildings. He regularly works as a lecturer and instructor at educational institutions across Europe.