PFLEIDERER – Naturally sustainable

In 1894, Gustav Pfleiderer founded a timber trading company and a rafting business in Heilbronn which used wood-based products. He laid the foundations of our company, which to this day has sustainable woodbased products at its core.

This document is titled ‘Naturally sustainable’, and for good reason – no new trees are deliberately felled to make Pfleiderer’s wood-based panels. The wood mix at Pfleiderer consists of only ~15% wood from forests, typically by-products such as thinning and residual wood. The remainder comprises sawmill residues such as chips, sawdust or edgings (so-called pre-consumer recycled material, approx. 45%), and material that comes back from the end consumer and is fed back into the product cycle through extensive reprocessing (so-called postconsumer recycled material, approx. 40%).

Fundamentally, we recognised many years ago that cascade utilisation and recycling management are the only economic models that can guarantee sustainable production of high-quality wood products. Also, the wood-based panels industry is committed to making a significant contribution to the fight against climate change in terms of carbon removals through sequestration, storage and substitution. That’s why we have already implemented intelligent wood cycles at our raw chipboard sites. Sawing residues from sawmills and recycled wood are collected and prepared for further processing. And in the production process, new wood-based panels are created by sorting, gluing, compacting and pressing. These high-quality products are ideally suited for a wide range of applications in interior design and furniture production. Our offer is highly significant in modern construction, where product safety and sustainability attributes are dominant priorities.

This year, we have thought long and hard about the ways in which we can build on the sustainable foundations of our business. Ultimately, we want to ensure we play a more active role in the transition to a lower-carbon economy, and do our part to help solve global challenges. Our stakeholders demand a response from us, and we are determined to meet their growing expectations. Accordingly, the Management Board has been working together to identify relevant priorities and targets, across Environmental, Social and Governance dimensions. We have frequently challenged ourselves on all aspects of sustainability, and are committed to do better across the board, and to align ourselves with best-practice.