Sustainability.

At AKD sustainability isn’t an add-on afterthought.
It runs through everything we do.
Sustaining our business.
Sustaining our communities.
Sustaining our planet.

Our Forests

The timber we produce for tomorrow’s homes is from 100% plantation forests. To grow that wood those forests pull carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere to keep our planet healthier. When a plantation tree gets harvested for us, a seedling gets planted in its place. That seedling continues to capture carbon from the atmosphere. Australian Softwood Plantations, like the ones AKD draws from, absorb and store more than 5 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere every year.

Once the trees are planted we don’t sit back. Our forests are working forests. We actively manage them to control weeds and pests, manage fire risks, and protect waterways and soil. Where we have land that isnt suitable for plantations we encourage native vegetation to bring biodiversity to our forests.

AKD Plantations:

• 2021 Planting – completed 495ha that’s 668,000 seedlings planted
• 2022 Planting – preparing for a significant step up this year 850ha – that’s 1,050,000 seedlings to be planted

Our Footprint

Modern sawmilling is large-scale manufacturing. At AKD we are reducing our fossil fuel energy footprint. Most of our energy is generated from our sawdust by-product. We turn this into heat to kiln dry our timber.

Our electrical energy footprint is moving to renewables. We have a renewable wind energy offtake agreement with a windfarm and we continue to look at large scale renewable options to reduce our greenhouse gases. This includes possibilities around solar, co-generation fueled by sawdust and other timber residues, and wood gasification technologies.

Environmental footprints are more than energy. Each of our operations has facilities to store and reuse rainwater and process water. We have invested in incredibly complex mathematical modelling and technologies to get more timber out of every log we process. And we have a dedicated team working out how to help our customers use timber more efficiently.

Our Communities

At AKD we recognise that to sustain our business we have to encourage, be actively involved in and sustain our communities.

In the towns we operate in don’t be surprised to find us connecting with local schools to exploring real-world problems. You might see one of more than 50 AKD apprentices down the street, and our in-roads into gender equality are bringing more women into the previously very male dominated world of wood processing.

Whether it is the forests of trees, the goings-on in our operations, or the people that make up our teams and relationships, AKD recognises that our business success is linked to our communities and our environment.

Sustainability is about all of us.