Danzer Leads the Way in Sustainable Wood Products

Exceeding Standards in Legality, Social Responsibility, and Transparent Governance

Danzer Leads the Way in Sustainable Wood Products

Dornbirn, Austria May 2024. Hardwood specialist Danzer continues to advance its strategy to promote sustainable wood products. Amidst increasingly stringent regulations, such as the European Supply Chain Act effective January 1, 2024, for companies with at least 1,000 employees, Danzer reports various initiatives designed to ease customer compliance, secure supplier market access, and empower consumers with the knowledge to make informed choices.

Operational improvements
In 2023, Danzer made significant progress in pursuing its sustainability agenda, which includes the following Objectives and Key Results (OKRs):

• Negative (-) Carbon
• Conserve (<) Water
• Zero (0) Plastic
• Fewer (<) Injuries
• More (+) Training

From 2022 to 2023, the company’s indirect CO2eq emissions from petrol and gas decreased from 19.3 thousand tons to 16.9 thousand tons. Cathy-Lynn Danzer, the company’s Sustainability & Compliance Counsel, explains: “We are achieving our objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by considering all factors, including the use of more efficient forklifts, increasing the amount of wood waste burned in our boilers, installing photovoltaic panels on our plants’ roofs, and turning off lights when not needed.” Water consumption at Danzer’s plants was reduced by 60% through measures such as changing the sprinkling regime used to keep the logs fresh. While plastic packing is required by some customers to maintain moisture content and protect the product during shipping and storage, the company’s efforts to reduce plastic resulted in 24% less packaging for Danzer’s worldwide product shipments in 2023.

High degree of transparency
Danzer follows widely accepted reporting standards and is fully transparent about its achievements, which many customers need to evaluate their supply chain or fulfill regulatory requirements. To that end, Danzer completed Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of all key products produced in Europe in 2023. The company also updated several of its Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). The results are available to all interested parties.

Danzer engaged EcoVadis, a provider of business sustainability ratings, to evaluate its Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility standards. That Danzer was recommended for a Bronze Rating is a unique and positive result for this industry sector.

To offer Danzer customers and suppliers a solution for the demanding traceability requirements of the new European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Danzer has begun gathering the necessary information and is upgrading its internal systems to provide this information with all sales.

In 2023, Danzer officially joined the United Nations Global Compact as a Partner. Since 2016, Danzer has used the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as a basis for the company’s Sustainability Reports. With the UN Global Compact partnership, Danzer underlines its commitment to best practices in all Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) aspects of its business.

Authentic information for consumers
Danzer also promotes transparency towards the end users of its wood products. To help consumers make informed choices, Danzer spearheaded a coalition of wood industry associations and companies called Wood4Real. This coalition promotes truthful labeling of wood and imitation-wooden-surface products, ensuring consumers are not confused and can understand the choices they are making.