Our group of companies is supported by common values and goals. For us, acting in an economically, ecologically and socially responsible manner is a matter of course. We are well aware of our responsibility to future generations in everything we do. Environmental Protection, Sustainable Forest Management, Quality, and Social Responsibility take top priority at Danzer.

Environmental Protection

The importance of preserving our natural environment, on which our life depends, is obvious. Our actions therefore take their orientation from the principles of sustainable development. This is why we integrated goals of environmental protection, based on an internationally certified environmental management system, into our corporate organization early on.

Securing high-quality timber resources is our most important concern for the future. As processors of wood - the most versatile and renewable resource - we have a particular responsibility to protect and conserve it. Although the volume of wood growing in temperate forests has been increasing worldwide for decades, the proportion of the high quality timber needed for veneer production is exhibiting the opposite trend. In addition, environmental protection measures can make the task of obtaining suitable veneer logs even more difficult by removing vast forest areas from the market.

Danzer Forestland practices Best Management Practices (BMP's) on all of its properties.  BMPs are a set of practices designed to maintain soil and water quality during forest management operations. They are voluntary guidelines developed by foresters and other natural resource professionals responsible for managing forests.  Our aim is to use optimum forest management to supply an ever-increasing proportion of our timber requirements from our own forests.

We are confident that a sustainable, environmentally and economically viable forestry program can be established.  In Indiana we have planted a seed orchard where, in cooperation with Purdue University and the state of Indiana, we are producing superior seeds in order to grow premium trees in the state nurseries in the future.

Sustainable Forest Management

Sustainability:

A state or process that can be maintained indefinitely. The principles of sustainability integrate three closely interlined elements—the environment, the economy and the social system—into a system that can be maintained in a healthy state indefinitely.

Sustainable forest management:

management regimes applied to forest land which maintain the productive and renewal capacities as well as the genetic, species and ecological diversity of forest ecosystems.

Sustainable forestry means managing our forests to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs by practicing a land stewardship ethic which integrates the reforestation, managing, growing, nurturing and harvesting of trees for useful products with the conservation of soil, air and water quality, wildlife and fish habitat and aesthetics.  We use our resources purposefully in the interests of long-term growth and sustainable conservation of high-quality wood.

Danzer is a wood processing company and therefore bears an exceptional responsibility. Ensuring the ongoing availability of high-quality wood resources and thus our own ability to do business effectively through qualitative, sustainable forest management is the most important concern of Danzer. In this connection, we have introduced sweeping guidelines for the procurement of round and sawn timber and veneer as part of our environmental management system.

The business activities of Danzer involve using the natural resource of wood wisely. We take consideration of the principle of sustainable forest management both in choosing our suppliers as well as in managing our own forests.

The principle of sustainable forest management implies to protect large-scale forest ecosystems and to use them in such a manner that they can fulfill important social, economic and cultural needs of people on a permanent basis. This refers to the preservation of bio-diversity of fauna and flora, to the conservation and increase of productivity of forest stands, and to regeneration and maintaining the vitality of forests.

Quality

At Danzer Forestland our focus is on growing quality hardwood.  This is due to the fact that hardwoods are significantly affected by product appreciation.

Product Appreciation is the increase in the average stumpage value per unit as a stand of timber grows and develops due to the improvement in the mix of log products towards products of higher value.  The rate of potential product appreciation is variable by species (not all species move to highest product uses such as decorative sliced veneers).  Trees must have the physical characteristics, such as straightness and the lack of internal and
external defects, that allow movement to higher value products.

Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the ecological and social responsibility assumed voluntarily by companies beyond the limits defined by legislation.

Being a family-run company by tradition, we feel ourselves as committed both to our employees and our surroundings. When we refer to surroundings, we mean the people and the social structures of a region or a country, as well as the natural environment.