Environment

Taking care of the environment is a vital part of our role as custodians of the forests.

We practice sustainable forestry management and are committed to looking after the land, waterways, animals and plants in and around our forests and mills.

We understand the carbon footprint of OneFortyOne in Australia and New Zealand. In 2018 we completed a comprehensive assessment using the Forest Industry Carbon Assessment Tool to measure our carbon emissions and storage. OneFortyOne’s trees sequester and store far more carbon dioxide (CO2) than it takes to process and deliver our products to market, making the entire company carbon negative – and we are working to improve this every year.

Australia

Recent projects at our Jubilee Sawmill in Mt Gambier include continuous drying kilns which cut energy use, cyclonic separation in our boilers which reduces emissions and innovative ways to use more of the tree than ever before. To find out more about our projects at Jubilee Sawmill read our Annual Review and read about the boiler emissions project.

Half an hour from Mt Gambier is the Mt Burr Swamp Habitat Restoration Reserve, a 300 hectare property containing a number of former deep freshwater marshes. Previously drained for agricultural use, the reserve was acquired in 2016 by the Nature Glenelg Trust (NGT), an environmental not-for-profit charitable organisation, with funding support from OneFortyOne.

Since that time the NGT has worked alongside volunteers to restore the centrepiece wetland on the property, Mt Burr Swamp, into a flourishing ecosystem for plants and animals. It is home to many nationally threatened species, including the Southern bent-wing bat, a critically endangered microbat which lives in the Mt Burr caves. Thousands of native trees have been planted, water quality is improving rapidly and there has been an explosion of biodiversity since the project began.

“The explosion of biodiversity is evidence that all our efforts are paying off,” says Janeth MacKenzie, Planning and Compliance Manager for OneFortyOne, “and as the wetland becomes even more established it should become a home for even more species.”

You can read more about our conservation projects here

New Zealand

In New Zealand we are working with Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research (MWLR) to identify landslide and debris flood susceptibility across the estate. The work will culminate with a toolbox of mitigation techniques, including retreat from areas where very high risks are unable to be mitigated.

The work is of critical interest to the rural communities that have experienced natural disasters involving forest debris. We are also working with Cawthron Institute and MWLR in researching the effectiveness of our best practice sediment control techniques in maintaining high freshwater quality and healthy ecosystems. This work is crucial in preparing and responding to the proposed New Zealand Government’s National Policy Statement and National Environmental Standards for Freshwater.

At our Kaituna Sawmill we’ve changed the way we handle untreated wood shavings to reduce the amount of dust produced, we’ve been monitoring dust levels to protect staff health, and we’ve been mapping noise levels to safeguard workers’ hearing.

The stream at Kaituna Sawmill was diverted 19 years ago to ensure it wasn’t contaminated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). With CCA no longer discharged at the mill, it is now recaptured and used on site. We’ve also made it easier for freshwater fish to navigate the waterways within our New Zealand forests by installing fish ramps and ropes in the tricky spots where stream crossings were impeding their progress upstream.

OneFortyOne also provides funding to the Kea Conservation Trust to support the Conflict Transformation Programme. This is a citizen science research programme that aims to establish how important plantation forestry is to kea by using kea sightings and data from our staff and contractors, and a third research programme that supports kea in situ.

“As a forestry business we have an extremely close connection to the environment, which means we take our role as custodians of the forest very seriously,” says Lees Seymour, Executive General Manager, New Zealand. “Taking care of our native species makes what we do here more meaningful for everyone on the team.”