SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION

Both companies Enviro-Forest Solutions Ltd and Australian Choice Timber Supplies Pty Ltd source materials from certified fully sustainable forestry operations.

Our manufacturing methods, as detailed in other sections involve gentle low temperature solar drying technology that produces higher quality products than higher temperature, conventional drying regimes. At the same time, solar drying does the world a big favour by reducing the massive energy inputs that contribute substantially to global warming and are inherent to modern corporate processing operations.

Our credo, “caring for our forests” is best exemplified by some of our products and the type of sawlog raw materials we have special skills in utilising.

Young, small redgum logs from silvicultural thinnings operations.

Our low cost, super-efficient technology and highly developed cyclic drying skills enable us to cost-effectively produce high quality products from small logs with minimal drying degrade losses, while others simply cannot. Current industry standard is to cut this resource to $100/cubic metre firewood while we make $2600/ cubic metre flooring. We have no reliance on old forests and THAT IS VALUE ADDING!

Dry Salvaged Logs At Mill

Again, our low drying cost, superior quality outcomes and high skill levels allow us to convert salvaged dead and wind blown wood sourced from farms and forests to high value unique natural edge products. (See products section.) This precious material has traditionally been split and sold for low value firewood. Our contribution to the economy and regional employment is unparalleled. Our waste factors are negligible and well below normal industry standards.

Plantation Bluegum and Hardwoods

Some of our raw material is sourced from sustainable plantations around Australia.

EFS has special and long developed skills in successfully dealing with this type of raw material that is in our view seriously undervalued by ignorance and lack of commercial skills. This valuable resource, becoming abundant within the licensed area held by EFS will become an increasingly significant as our ultimate growth plans become reality. Our special skills and technology allow us to viably process small hardwood logs that are otherwise under-valued or wasted, so that commercial thinning can be conducted to promote healthy tree growth in the forest. Small plantation sawlogs that typical hardwood native forest millers regard as being woodchip logs are valuable sawlogs capable of producing high value products to us.

EFS - INNOVATIVE & CAPABLE OF BEST-PRACTISE UTILISATION

We are able to relate some funny stories to this valuable resource. What follows highlights the inventive mind-set of our company executives, and why EFS is able to present an exceptional and strong case for sustainability.

As long ago as 15 years ago, one of our key directors, Greg Weir was General Manager of a leading Australian corporate timber processing operation. He conducted comprehensive milling and processing studies on small plantation blue-gum hardwood sawlogs sourced from Tasmania. He used softwood gangsaw milling equipment to simultaneously relieve stress and tension within the logs so that suitable product could be milled from the logs at high levels of quality and recovery. Consequent to this success, a major hurdle in conversion of immature hardwood logs had been overcome. Further, stress grading research was conducted by Greg in conjunction with State Forests NSW scientific researchers. This work concluded that the stiffness and working properties of all sections of the small plantation and native forest eucalypt logs exceeded radiata pine structural properties by a very large margin. Details of this report were submitted to the parent company “Petersville Sleigh” who at the time owned a large part of the Tasmanian Forestry estate and the large milling operation that Greg general managed at the time.

Plantation hardwood is generally undervalued!
Greg’s report then concluded that plantation hardwood forestry was “on the map” if a satisfactory drying solution could be made available. The implication of his work was that the small logs from hardwood forests held significantly higher value as sawn timber than comparatively low value woodchips. Since then, ACTS significant commitment has provided the final link by development and application of our solar cyclic drying and by virtue of its superior stress relief. This provides a superior quality-value outcome to all other drying technologies for this very difficult timber. The company for which Greg conducted the commercial research trials (Petersville Sleigh) was ultimately sold to “Boral” by Pacific Dunlop, soon after its successful takeover. At that time Greg left the company to pursue his own interests, in particular development of his solar drying technology. His reports were buried by the takeover.

For a long period after Greg Weir’s departure from Boral, Greg was ridiculed by executives of that company throughout the industry for having used pine technology to saw hardwood. Using pine technology for hardwood was a preposterous proposition according to one well known Boral executive in particular. Consequent to their policy after Greg’s departure, intake of the valuable small hardwood logs ceased to the saw-mill and were presumably left to rot in the forest or sold as pallet log material at a fraction of their true value. With a few exceptions, this trend generally continues across Australia with most being wood-chipped for export or left to rot in the forest.

Recently, a well known timber industry publication heralded as major news that research by an eminent Australian scientific timber body and a major Tasmanian Forest Industry organisation have together made major breakthroughs in plantation hardwood sawlog milling. They have finally concluded from commercial trials using a “hewsaw” system (typically used for pine conversion!) that “simultaneous relief of stress” in plantation eucalypts is possible by applying multiple cuts at the same time! Having taken 15 years to catch up with results that were proven 15 years ago by Greg Weir, this situation provides just one example of our capacity to stay ahead of our competitors! We are not surprised that the corporate executives that ridiculed Greg 15 years ago are no longer working for the company.

Fortunately, our own timber drying and processing enterprise does not have to rely on others to provide the final missing link of a successful drying technology and prescription. We already have the solution! Also, we can rest assured that our other trade secrets in best-practise hardwood sawmilling will remain our exclusive property until long after we have captured a significant market share and soon demonstrated the new best-practise for the world to emulate. In the absence of our drying skills, knowledge and exclusive solar drying technology rights, the research group noted above is currently pursuing drying technologies that generally cost more and consume vastly more energy than ours and even more than the conventional “dinosaur” drying technology currently used by older-growth native forest milling companies. By dinosaur, we don’t mean bells and whistles because conventional drying technology has plenty of them. We use this term because the technologies were primarily designed for a resource type that is shrinking in availability and being replaced by a totally different resource type. Frankly, it cannot meet the needs of changing wood type and rapidly rising world energy costs. They also cause high levels of drying stress that immature wood cannot tolerate and by typical reliance on massive heating energy inputs, are generally detrimental to our environment.

As a team, ACTS and EFS and its team of long serving skilled directors are well positioned to maximise returns from plantation hardwood timber and can rightfully make our claim to REALLY caring for the forests and for being able to hold our heads high as TRULY being sustainable producers of quality timber products.