Timber Sustainability

Timber as a sustainable building product

Timber, as a building material, is good choice as it is a natural and renewable resource. Not only does timber store carbon through its life cycle but it is recyclable. The production and processing of timber products uses less energy than most other building materials, in turn resulting in fewer emissions into the atmosphere.

>Building a Sustainable Future brochure (PDF)
>Wood Solutions - Environmental Credentials

Boral Timber and Greenstar

Boral Timber products can contribute towards achieving points under different categories of the Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA) Green Star rating tools.

>Download the Boral Timber Sustainability brochure for more information

AFS Chain of Custody

Boral Timber products have full Chain of Custody certification which meets the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) AS 4707-2006.

Boral Timber has implemented AFS Chain of Custody certification to support responsible and sustainable forest management in Australia.

All Boral Timber manufacturing sites are Chain of Custody certified, this means all products from these sites are certified and can be traced from processing to distribution and are produced using certified, legal and sustainably managed sources.

Boral Timber AFS certified products
Decorative hardwood products

Boral 19mm and overlay solid strip flooring
Boral Silkwood engineered hardwood flooring
Boral parquetry
Boral decking

Structural

Softwood
Green and seasoned hardwoods

Other products

Furniture boards, pallets, crating, poles, crossarms, dunnage, woodchips and woodwaste/biofuel.

>Australian Forestry Standard

Boral Timber Fibre Export Pty Ltd (BTFE) and FSC Controlled Wood

Boral Timber Export Pty Ltd (BTFE) exports woodchip from sustainably managed forests. BTFE supports the Principles and Criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

BTFE is currently undertaking work to comply with the FSC-STD-40-005 which is a FSC standard for Controlled Wood.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) shall promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests.

Environmentally appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber and non-timber products maintains the forest's biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes.

Socially beneficial forest management helps both local people and society at large to enjoy long term benefits and also provides strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term management plans.

Economically viable forest management means that forest operations are structured and managed so as to be sufficiently profitable, without generating financial profit at the expense of the forest resources, the ecosystem or affected communities. The tension between the need to generate adequate financial returns and the principles of responsible forest operations can be reduced through efforts to market forest products for their best value.

FSC has 10 Principles and associated Criteria (FSC P&C) that form the basis for all FSC forest management standards and certification. FSC International sets the framework for developing and maintaining international, national and sub-national standards. This is intended to ensure that the process for developing FSC policies and standards is transparent, independent and participatory. In February 2012 the FSC membership approved the first major revision to the FSC P&C, in order to bring FSC certification up to date. The review and revision of the FSC P&C began in 2008 and gathered feedback from many FSC members and other stakeholders.

Controlled Wood ensures the avoidance of wood in FSC certified products that come from the following categories:

Illegally harvested wood
Wood harvested in violation of traditional and civic rights
Wood harvested from forests where High Conservation Values (HCVs) are threatened
Wood harvested from forests being converted to plantations or non forest use
Wood from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted

FSC and Boral Timber

>Boral Timber Fibre Export Pty Ltd (BTFE) and FSC Controlled Wood
>Forest Stewardship Council website
>Forests New South Wales (FNSW)