Sustainable forestry
Sustainable forestry comes first
The essence of sustainable forestry is that no more wood is harvested than actually grows. This principle ensures the preservation of forests. Forests absorb CO₂ as trees grow and therefore act as carbon sinks.
For elka, however, sustainable forestry also means that no wood from illegal logging or wood from forest communities in need of special protection is purchased and used. Likewise, no wood is processed that is harvested in contravention of legal regulations, nor wood from the conversion of natural forests into plantations.
These certifications include the PEFC™(Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) and the FSC®(Forest Stewardship Council®).
elka holds chain-of-custody certification under both schemes; the certificates are available under “Wood origin”.
Ecological, social and economically sustainable action is one of the basic principles of elka Holzwerke. With this in mind, we maintain respectful relations with our employees, suppliers, customers and other business partners.
Wood purchasing
PEFC™ and FSC® set standards for sustainable forest management, and compliance with them is verified by independent certification bodies. Certified wood takes priority in our purchasing. To keep transport distances, effort and costs low, we buy round timber mainly within a radius of about 150 km around our plant in Morbach.
In doing so, elka relies on long-standing and trusting cooperation with our suppliers and forwarding agents. In this way, we ensure a continuous supply to our plant in Morbach.
Cascading use
Wood products store the carbon that the tree absorbed from the atmosphere as it grew, for as long as the product remains in use. The longer wood products stay in service, the longer that carbon remains stored. elka is always aware of its special responsibility as a wood-processing company, which is why we prefer cascade use and thus close the wood cycle.
Thus, the material use of the fresh wood is always at the beginning of our process chain. With the material use of sawmill by-products in our board plant and the recycling of waste wood to generate process energy, elka makes a further contribution to the efficient use of wood and to environmental protection.
Construction and sawn timber
Fresh wood –
Raw chipboard
elka
Strong Board esb
