We have always placed sustainable management issues at the heart of our industrial activity. We achieve this in a concrete manner:

• Firstly, we have chosen to work with wood. Compared with the majority of building materials such as steel or concrete, which require a significant amount of fossil fuel, working with wood offers the advantage of being much less energy consuming.

• Secondly, the renewable nature of wood as a resource, by means of sustainable management involving regular planting and the official monitoring of young trees, allows us to have access to a regional raw material source that is almost inexhaustible. Our teams take environmental aspects very seriously: we are one of the first Belgian sawmills to join the PEFC (Pan European Forest Certification) certification system and support forestry management that is economically viable, respects the environment and is socially beneficial. In addition to the long-term economic interest, we have a responsibility towards future generations.

• And lastly, the development of several units based on the “wood-energy” concept.

The main advantage of wood in relation to fossil fuel sources is its neutrality in the carbon cycle, in other words only the CO2 produced during the growth of the tree is released in the combustion process.

¬ See the CO2 cycle diagram.

The green electricity produced is equal to the average annual consumption of + /- 40,000 households, while the waste heat allows us to dry our entire production of sawn wood and produce 150,000 tons of pellets on an annual basis.

The green electricity produced is equal to the average annual consumption of + /- 40,000 households, while the waste heat allows us to dry our entire production of sawn wood and produce 150,000 tons of pellets on an annual basis.

The production of green electricity and heat by means of our biofuel allows us to make an annual saving of approximately 140,000 tons of CO2 in relation to standard fossil fuel use.

Environmental aspects:

The main advantage of the biofuel is its neutrality in terms of CO2 emissions, as well as the fact that it is a renewable and inexhaustible energy source. The relative proportion of the biomass in the production of electric energy is currently very low in Belgium.

In conclusion, in the same way as the Belgian State, through our visions and actions we provide a clear signal that favours a clean and safe energy supply system, in order to benefit our generation, and the generations to come.