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For 30 years, the US’ The Home Depot has led the industry charge on sustainable wood products – and now the retailer is strengthening that commitment. Behind most products you see at The Home Depot, there are forests. Recognising this, the world’s biggest home improvement retailer takes its responsibility to those forests seriously. Source: Sustainability Founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, The Home Depot has grown to become one of the largest and most recognisable retailers in the US, with 2,200 stores worldwide and annual revenue of US$157.29 billion. “While our business has changed since 1979, our values remain the same,” CEO Ted Decker said in the company’s recently released forestry report. “One of those values is Doing the Right Thing, and as the world’s largest home improvement retailer, we’re in a unique position to enact positive change through our sustainable forestry initiatives.” Already leading the industry charge in FSC-certified wood product sales in the US, most wood sourced by The Home Depot hails from regions with sustainable forests. But the company knows it can always do more. Recently releasing its 2023 Sustainable Forestry Report, The Home Depot announced a set of strengthened standards and commitments designed to protect more tropical ecosystems, including those most at risk and the rich biodiversity the planet needs to thrive. This means that by the end of FY26, all wood products sourced to the US and Canada from an additional set of high-risk regions will need to bear third-party certification or be plantation-grown. This covers most of Home Depot’s overall wood sourcing and includes regions such as Cerrado in Brazil, home to 5% of the planet’s animals and plants, as well as Gran Chaco and Atlantic Forest biomes in South America. Described by Green Century Funds as a “welcome step in the right direction”, the new policy is an expansion of the retailer’s long-established and continued strategy in sustainable sourcing. It’s been 30 years since the first certified-sustainable wood shelving arrived in The Home Depot aisles and 25 years since the company issued its Wood Purchasing Policy. Recognising the positive impact Home Depot could achieve by working with suppliers that adhere to set standards of forest management and tree species selection, the policy committed to stop buying from endangered regions by the end of 2002 with a particular focus on lauan, cedar and redwood. In the 25 years since, the US$369 billion business has established supply chain protocols to ensure visibility into where its products come from and to safeguard the health of these forests, updating its policy along the way. One example is the company’s preference for certified wood. Wood is considered ‘certified’ if it has been managed and harvested under strict guidelines and monitored by a third party to ensure sustainable practices are allowed. Since 2018, the retailer has required Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for wood sourced from regions most at risk for deforestation, specifically the Amazon basin, the Congo basin, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Offering FSC-certified products across various categories, from board lumber to doors to patio furniture, the company strives to choose suppliers that have secured one or more recognised certifications including FSC, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Among achievements, Home Depot has transitioned many vendors to FSC-certified wood in America working with vendors to shift more than 80% of its lauan wood used in the production of doors to wood from more sustainable sources and moving more than 90% of its cedar purchases to second and third-growth forests in the US. The company has also significantly increased its FSC-certified redwood, with its two primary suppliers both delivering a strong procurement preference for FSC-certified wood. One FSC-certified supplier, Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC), is an example of how private forest management can protect and restore the ecological attributes of the forest. With around 228,800 acres of forestland, MRC harnesses a management technique to create a wildfire-resilient forest. Wildfire-resilient forests can continue to be carbon sinks and aid in global efforts to fight climate change. They also maintain wildlife habitat for various species, and water quality. Among other certified and preferred suppliers, Canada-based J.D. Irving (JDI) has proven that sustainable forestry management is good not just for trees, but also for the planet and business. With lumber products and forestry activities certified by SFI and woodlands certified by FSC, JDI’s entire forest products value chain is carbon negative, absorbing more carbon than it emits a study by the University of New Brunswick finds.

Investment managers who have bought up forestland are going tree by tree to figure out whether they should be felled for timber or kept up for carbon-credit generation. Source: WSJ Growing demand for credits means investing in forests isn’t just about producing timber, but it can take a lot of legwork to determine what role each tree should play in a portfolio, as well as ensure it is delivering its promised environmental benefit if left standing. “If you invest in a forest, the question we ask is, ‘How do you manage wood products versus carbon?’” said Brian Kernohan, chief sustainability officer, private markets, at Manulife Investment Management. “The answer to us is, ‘What do our clients want?’” Manulife, which has 5.4 million acres of forest in its investment portfolio, calculates the value of each tree to inform its harvest strategy. Every tree in a forest has to be evaluated based on species growth rates and product value. If the carbon credit value is high enough, it stays up even if for just a few more years. If not, it’s cut down for timber. Broad-leaf trees, for example, are better for carbon sequestration but take longer to grow, creating up to 500 to 600 credits per hectare but taking over 100 years to reach maturity. Conifer trees, on the other hand, create half the number of credits per hectare, but only take 35 to 40 years to mature, which can make them more useful in getting to net-zero emissions faster. Mr Kernohan said that until recently, forest land wasn’t valuable enough to be considered worth investing in solely for carbon sequestration. “We’re now able to realize that value,” he said. The voluntary carbon credit market could be worth as much as US$40 billion by 2030, up from US$2 billion in 2021, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group and Shell. It offers a way for companies to help negate the carbon emissions they produce from operations and can be especially useful for those in hard-to-abate sectors such as energy generation and heavy industry. Demand for carbon credits has grown rapidly both in the US and overseas, but in the past couple of years it has started to slow after questions were raised about whether projects are delivering what they promised. Last year, an investigation by UK newspaper the Guardian, German weekly Die Zeit and SourceMaterial, a journalism nonprofit, found that many certified carbon credits that are bought and sold didn’t actually represent genuine reductions in carbon emissions. “The issue with the whole market is the diversity in the types of credits and the methodologies used to calculate it,” said Tom Frith, investment manager at JustCarbon, a carbon-credit project financing firm. “It’s really hard to tell what is kosher. For a business, it’s much easier to think of buying carbon credits as investing in an [individual] project rather than a uniform product.” There are different types of carbon credits. Removal credits, for example, are generated by how much carbon dioxide a company removes from the atmosphere and are seen as more valuable because the carbon tonnage can be more easily calculated. Meanwhile, avoidance credits can be more difficult to accurately calculate as they are generated through an activity not happening—for example, not cutting down a tree. Tree-planting initiatives also generate removal credits because they remove carbon through photosynthesis. The potential demand is giving rise to firms known as carbon developers such as Finite Carbon based in Wayne, Pa. Finite Carbon works with institutional investors trying to establish how much people are willing to pay for carbon removal, and landowners who might be in a position to turn away from their traditional income sources in favor of carbon removal. “You have a decision to make,” Daniel Crawford, vice president of commercial operations at Finite Carbon, said. “You have acquired this tree, so what is the value and where will the value come from? There’s now this new operation of carbon value for what is sequestered and stored.” Mr Crawford said that the carbon value for existing tree assets only becomes viable if there is demand for lumber and timber within the area of the forest. If the tree was never going to be cut down, then there was never a case for carbon saving, he said. In that case, there should be no avoidance credit. Manulife in 2021 invested in a forest in Maine solely to sequester carbon. “Some wood is better for furniture or paper and some types of trees better for carbon sequestration. It’s about understanding potential,” said Mr Kernohan. He added that a forest at the south end of Penobscot Lake had a very high carbon value, giving Manulife more of a reason to invest in that land. Other firms are planting new trees to be used for carbon credits which mature over a longer period. Richard Kelly, co-founder of Foresight Sustainable Forestry based in the UK, said it is aiming to plant nine million trees by spring 2025, with half of the portfolio dedicated to carbon removal. Mr Kelly said planting trees and issuing credits based on them protects the trees from being felled and removes any debate over whether they were ever going to be cut down.  

A landmark new initiative, Catalysing Australia’s Biosecurity (CAB), will see a forecast initial co-investment of more than $55 million over six years from Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, government, industry and a range of partners to strengthen the nation’s biosecurity defences. Source: Timberbiz This is in addition to the extra $1 billion in biosecurity funding over the next four years, announced by the Australian government in the Biosecurity Sustainable Funding Package in Budget 2023-24. The CAB initiative, co-led with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), is expected to scale over time providing better coordination as well as alignment of biosecurity research development and extension outcomes in the National Biosecurity Strategy. CSIRO’s Chief Executive Dr Doug Hilton said the initiative, which falls under the CSIRO Missions program, is critical to safeguard the nation. “Biosecurity is on the frontline of keeping Australia and Australians safe – it means protecting Australia’s unique biodiversity, ensuring our food security and minimising the risk of the transmission of infectious diseases,” Dr Hilton said. “Our biosecurity defences, processes and protections have to be robust; they have to be world class and they must be science-based, which is why CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, is part of this initiative.” DAFF Secretary and Director of Biosecurity Adam Fennessy PSM said the CAB initiative would help to transform research and innovation in the nation’s current biosecurity system. “This ground-breaking initiative between CSIRO and DAFF is a significant step towards achieving the National Biosecurity Strategy’s (NBS) long-term outcome of a connected, efficient and science-based biosecurity system,” Mr Fennessy said. “Our recently launched NBS Implementation Plan highlights the need for integration supported by technology, research and data.” CAB’s initial suite of innovative projects include: Investing significantly to prepare for emergency animal diseases such as the Japanese encephalitis virus and lumpy skin disease; Trialling the BeeRight and eDNA technology to detect varroa mites in bee hives; Delivering a real-time biosecurity alerts service in partnership with Atlas of Living Australia; Deploying advanced pest management systems at the crop and landscape scale in collaboration with Hort Innovation; Developing an Australian Biosecurity Research Database to guide strategic investments and decision-making. The initiative will draw on cutting-edge developments in AI, machine learning, decision support platforms, genomics, robotics, drones, remote sensing, big data analytics and next-generation biological solutions, like advanced therapeutics and genetic control options. CAB also has a focus on empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to contribute their expertise towards national biosecurity efforts. The initiative also has the potential to enhance regional prosperity and security, particularly through providing new funding opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises. Mr Fennessy said protecting Australia’s biosecurity is a shared responsibility that demands innovative solutions and strong partnerships. “CAB is a testament to the power of partnership, with cross-sectoral efforts representing a significant step forward in our collective efforts to safeguard Australia’s agricultural industries, environment, and communities for future generations,” Mr Fennessy said.  

A fatal and fast-spreading tree disease, Dutch elm disease, has been discovered in Waipā, New Zealand. Tests this week confirmed a tree in Te Awamutu, on private property, has the fungal disease which is almost always deadly. Source: Waikato Times The council says infected trees should be removed and “immediately chipped, burnt or buried”. Checks are starting for the more than 250 council-maintained elms and parks around the district. Waipā District Council arborist planner James Richardson said Dutch elm disease is considered one of the most devastating tree diseases in the world. Elm bark beetles spread the disease by carrying the fungus from an infected tree and boring into new trees nearby. It can also be spread to other elms via the trees’ connected root systems, movement of firewood or by contaminated pruning tools. It does not affect trees unrelated to the elm species. “It is very concerning to have confirmation the disease is now in Waipā. We will be working closely with Waikato Regional Council, SPS Biosecurity and Environmental Services, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), local arborists, Cambridge Tree Trust and the community to limit the spread of the disease.” Symptoms develop quickly within a four-to-five-week period and signs of the disease include wilting, curling, yellowing of leaves or dying or dead branches, the council said. There is no known cure for infected trees. “When removing the infected trees, all material should be immediately chipped, burnt or buried on site or at a landfill site, incorrect processing can spread the disease further. People should contact MPI if they suspect their elm trees to be infected”, Richardson said. Elms can be identified by their large leaves, which feature serrated edges, symmetrical veins, an asymmetrical leaf base and feels like sandpaper. The next steps for council will be to collaborate with SPS Biosecurity and Environmental Services to monitor the spread of the disease. Waipā District Council has more than 250 elm trees it maintains in parks and streets. Staff will be monitoring and assessing them regularly to identify any trees with the disease early and manage any actions required.

Members for the Mount Gambier Research, Education and Training Precinct steering committee met last week to move forward plans for development in the area. Source: The SE Voice The steering committee discussed the planned work at the precinct on Wireless Road East which includes a Technical College, the Forestry Centre of Excellence and funding for new workshop areas at TAFE. The two-storey college will be built at the front southwest corner of the precinct and will feature workshops and classrooms on the ground level, along with short stay accommodation on the upper level to enable students from outlying towns and districts to attend the Mount Gambier Technical College. The committee was also briefed on the progress of the Forestry Centre of Excellence which will be built on the eastern side of the Mount Gambier campus of the University of South Australia. In total, $59m is being invested by the State Government into the precinct. Minister for Education, Training and Skills, Blair Boyer said the investment in the Technical College at the precinct is aimed at providing the best opportunity for students to prepare to enter the workforce or further their career path. “The technical colleges are one of the key ways the Malinauskas Labor Government is addressing the skills need for South Australia – to ensure we are driving the skills focus in sectors of demand,” Minister Boyer said. “They are about increasing choices and options for students and providing them with direct pathways to specific industry sectors where there are careers in demand right here in South Australia. “We have been widely consulting across the Limestone Coast to ensure we meet industry demand and ensure employment pathways that secure the future of the potential students, employers and the state.” The steering committee, made up of government, education and industry representatives, is providing advice to Precinct Leader Peter Gandolfi on building and strengthening the precinct’s ties with business and community organisations. Mr Gandolfi said the next 18 months will be an exciting period. “The precinct will be a hive of construction activity and the steering committee will be providing advice on how to best use the site and secure it as the premier destination for research, education and training in the region,” he said.

Last month, an uncontrollable blaze ravaged hundreds of hectares of timber plantation at Mount Lonarch, west of Ballarat, marking a significant loss for Hancock Victorian Plantation Holdings (HVP Plantations). The fire, which ignited on 22 February, destroyed 1,000 hectares of pine trees, heavily impacting the supply chain for mills in Victoria and beyond. Source: bnn Breaking HVP Plantations’ corporate fire manager, Richard Mailer, disclosed that despite the substantial loss, efforts are underway to salvage what remains of the damaged plantation. HVP Plantations rallied a force of 100 personnel from across Victoria and Queensland to combat the fire alongside the Country Fire Authority and Forest Fire Management Victoria. Their tireless work through day and night succeeded in saving 700ha of the 1,700ha estate. The company’s swift action underlines its commitment to forest management and fire prevention, especially in the face of increasing bushfire threats exacerbated by climate change. This incident has been the company’s most substantial loss since the Black Summer fires of 2019-20, which saw 6,000ha of its estate turned to ash. The devastation at Mount Lonarch is more than a temporary setback for HVP Plantations; it poses significant questions about the future sustainability of timber supply in Victoria, Australia’s largest plantation timber estate region. The company, owned by international investment funds, manages 183,000ha of plantation forests in Victoria, making fire management a strategic priority to safeguard its assets and the broader industry. Plans are already in place to replant the affected estate with radiata pine this coming winter, in an effort to mitigate the long-term impact on the supply chain. Amidst the backdrop of a changing climate, the challenges facing plantation forestry in Australia are mounting. Professor David Lindenmayer from the Australian National University Fenner School of Environment and Society highlighted the increasing frequency of extreme forest fire danger index days, a trend that underscores the urgent need for smarter plantation design and the adoption of new technologies for early fire detection and suppression. The national plantation estate’s shrinkage by 15% between 2009 and 2022, as reported by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, further emphasizes the critical role of effective fire management in the industry’s future. The recent bushfire at Mount Lonarch serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities facing the timber industry in an era of global warming. While the immediate response from HVP Plantations and firefighting teams has been commendable, the incident highlights the broader challenges of sustainable forestry management and the importance of innovation in fire prevention and control. As Victoria and the rest of Australia brace for a hotter, drier future, the lessons learned from Mount Lonarch will undoubtedly shape the strategies and technologies deployed to protect the nation’s precious forest resources.

Finalising fair timber industry departure packages and fast tracking the now four-year bushfire rebuild were yet again raised in State Parliament last week by Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull. Source: Timberbiz “It beggars belief that this Government is closing down an entire industry and the one thing it can do to support the community – get the bushfire rebuild done – continues to lag,” Mr Bull said. “It is proof this city centric government does not support rural areas or have a genuine desire to help our region through a tough period. “The one thing they could do to assist towns like Orbost is get on with the job and restore this important tourism infrastructure. “It is probably unfair on snails to say they get things done at snails’ pace. It’s not an indictment on local workers on the ground, it’s the upper echelons, but they are frozen in bureaucratic approvals and infected with a serious attitude of non-urgency,” he said. “On the issue of timber workers more specifically, Mr Bull said this was meant to be all put to bed by Christmas, and now we hear an announcement is pending to wind up VicForests in a few months’ time, but the reality is more workers remain in limbo. “Packages have been set to a budget rather than a fair outcome, down the line businesses that were promised support remain in limbo, and the government continues to haggle with mills over exit packages. “Their families have not been treated courteously or fairly. “An example of the contempt is the person who is handling the exit strategy went on holidays for much of February with an out-of-office reply saying their emails would not be monitored while they were away – all while families seek a fair outcome that they are not being offered.”

The Labor Government has promised to act immediately to provide security for the thousands of forest industry employees by ensuring open, transparent and secure access to resource by Tasmanian businesses with investments in Tasmania. Source: Timberbiz And if elected at the 23 March State elections, Labor has promised to ensure Tasmanian contractors get a fair go at Tasmanian contracts and that the special species sector can get better access to logs. “Labor has listened to the timber industry and worked very closely with them over the past few years and this policy reflects our dedication to work together to secure a sustainable future for the industry,” Labor Leader Rebecca White said. “Also, importantly, our policy will not create division and reignite the forest wars which will in fact drive away major customers and put Tasmanian timber jobs and businesses at risk. “The timber industry is a vital part of the Tasmanian economy and crucial to regional Tasmania,” she said. “A Labor Government that I lead will put Tasmanian timber workers and companies first, not mainland companies.” Shadow Resources Minister Shane Broad said that for the past 10 years the Liberal Government had taken the Tasmanian timber industry for granted by using it as a political football while failing to address growing concerns about resource security and transparency. “Under the Liberals’ watch contracted volumes have not been delivered, iconic special species logs have dwindled to almost nothing and local logging contractors have been overlooked for cashed up mainland operators,” Mr Broad said. “Labor will ensure that contracts are extended out to 2040 and include plantation sawlogs, special species are managed independently and that a 25 per cent local benefits test applies to logging and haulage contracts,” he said. “Labor agrees that an independent pricing mechanism is needed to ensure contract terms are fair and can be independently audited.” The Tasmanian Forest Products Association’s CEO Nick Steel said Labor’s plan would back Tasmanian workers, the economy and build on the important work forestry did to meet the State’s lofty climate ambitions. “This plan does offer our industry, and the 51500 Tasmanians employed in forestry, a secure, productive and responsible future,” Mr Steel said. “I thank the Tasmanian Labor Party for working directly with the TFPA and industry to develop a plan that ticks off many boxes in our election wish list.” Mr Steel said grants to encourage on-island processing, increasing the local benefit weighting to 25% on all Tasmanian timber contracts, ensuring our private foresters are included in the TasGRN rollout, and continuing to fund the Tasmanian Timber Promotions Board will all make a big difference to industry. “By backing our Home-Grown Timber Future Policy, Labor is ensuring that our businesses can compete with interstate operators,” Mr Steel said. “Improving the quality of our wood on-island will not only support thousands of jobs but will also give a significant boost to the Tasmanian economy,” Mr Steel said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Tasmanian Labor Party to ensure that all facets of our 2024 Election Wishlist are implemented – helping our businesses employ Tasmanians, contribute to our state’s economy and continue to sequester carbon. “Regardless the result of the election, the TFPA is pleased that both major parties are backing our industry, and we’re confident forestry has a strong future after 23 March,” Mr Steel said. Labor’s plans for Tasmania: STOP the current plantation sawlog Expression of Interest process being conducted by Sustainable Timbers Tasmania (STT), a process which could see mills starved of logs, workers thrown on the scrapheap and more logs exported out of Tasmania. REVIEW the available resources – both native forest and plantation – in an open and transparent process with independent oversight. PROTECT existing Tasmanian businesses and their workers to ensure they have the highest priority to obtain long term secure contracts for wood supply. No sawlog or peelers will be exported in whole log form if they can be processed in Tasmania. DEVELOP a framework for prioritising access to STT’s wood supply capacity that is in the best interests of the State with a particular reference to regional Tasmania. PROVIDE confidence to existing STT customers by giving them the opportunity to negotiate enforceable contracts on commercial terms for their existing volumes, as a minimum until 2040. ENFORCE the local benefits weighting of 25 per cent so that Tasmanian contractors get a fair go. ENSURE the future of the special species sector by the creation of a standalone Special Timbers Authority tasked with managing all aspects of non-blackwood special species timber supply and management. ESTABLISH an independent Forest Products Price Oversight Body to ensure Tasmanians obtain a fair price for their resources. ALLOCATE $5 million towards developing new ways to process logs on-island. PROVIDE $350,000 for a heli-harvesting trial of dead Huon pine. COMMIT to funding the Tasmanian Timber Promotion Board in future Budgets. COMMIT to including private forest estate owners in the TasGRN rollout. REWRITE the STT Ministerial Charter to reflect our Tasmania First Timber Policy

Opal has told workers it plans to cut 220 jobs across Australia and New Zealand businesses. Source: Timberbiz It is understood 45 jobs, mainly office staff, will go at the company’s Maryvale plant in the LaTrobe Valley. Opal, one of the Australia’s largest paper and packaging companies,  is the local subsidiary of Japanese paper giant Nippon and runs a paper production mill at Maryvale. It also operates a stationery manufacturer in the Melbourne suburb of Preston and has a site in Botany, New South Wales, which produces container board. Two hundred jobs were cut at the company’s Maryvale mill when it ceased white paper production in December 2022. In a statement to staff seen by Timberbiz, Opal chief executive Chris Nagaura blamed the decision to axe the jobs on “a series of unplanned challenges”, including COVID-19 and rising energy costs. He also said “market disruptions” from the company’s decision to cease white paper production at the Maryvale site were “continuing to severely impact Opal’s financial performance”. “Compounding this, unnecessary complexity and inefficiency exists across Opal,” Mr Nagaura said in the statement. “Consequently, our operating costs are higher than they need to be.” According to the statement, the measures to improve Opal’s performance will affect the entire company. An Opal spokesperson told the ABC the company was reviewing its “organisation structure across salaried roles” as a result of challenges that had affected its profitability. “There will be no impact on Opal’s customers from these changes,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Opal is committed to fully supporting our valued team members as we work through this transition.” The ABC says the statement did not address which parts of the business would be affected by the cuts. Opal is one of the Latrobe Valley’s largest private employers and still manufactures brown paper products at Maryvale. It is unclear which parts of the business will be affected, but unions representing staff at the Maryvale mill believe some jobs will be lost at the site. Electrical Trades Union Gippsland organiser Peter Mooney told the ABC he understood there would be “some impact” at the Maryvale site, but did not know how many local jobs would be lost. “What impact in total is very unclear and we would like to ask some questions of the local management as soon as possible to find out exactly is going on and what this actually means for the site,” he said. “Some of our members are starting to say, ‘Is there a future with Opal in the paper manufacturing area?'” The ABC said Mr Mooney believed the workforce deserved answers to the questions raised by the announcement.