Environmental Benefits
The environmental benefits of CSR Developments’ wood began before the company was even created - with the company’s focus on harvesting trees from existing hydroelectric reservoirs. Hydro dams generate around 20% of global electricity.
Once installed, hydroelectricity is widely viewed as the best large-scale source of energy from an environmental perspective; it emits no carbon. The development of new hydro dams often has major environmental and social impacts, and CSR Developments will not become involved in them.
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Dead waste or green resource?
A stand of semi-submerged tropical hardwood trees in the Volta Lake, Ghana. |
Hydro reservoirs often contain large stands of submerged forests. Lacking oxygen, the trees typically do not deteriorate, keeping their outstanding, often old-growth, character.
With the world’s increasing focus on environmental concerns, including tropical deforestation and climate change, submerged forests offer a unique value proposition, with tremendous environmental benefits.
Consequently, the emerging underwater timber salvaging industry has great potential to improve the environmental footprint of the forestry industry. If well developed, it can provide a critical buffer period to help governments and responsible companies establish and enforce regulations and market mechanisms for sustainable tropical rainforest management.
As a major first step, it is preparing the world’s first Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) to international standards for a submerged timber salvage operation.
Avoiding Deforestation
A key environmental advantage of underwater timber harvesting is avoided deforestation: each tree CSR Developments salvages will help reduce unsustainable logging of tropical rainforests. Given the scale of operations, this benefit is expected to extend to tropical forests throughout Africa. The company’s next step is to work with an environmental economist to quantify these benefits, which include keeping forests, biodiversity and ecosystem services intact.
CSR Developments is also intent on minimizing its carbon footprint. Most sawmills in tropical countries simply burn their sawdust and wood waste in the open, but the company will harness the waste for heat and electricity for its operations. Additional electricity will be fed back to the national grid to reduce Ghana’s need for new fossil fuel power plants.
Significant environmental benefits can often be secured through better operational design and management. CSR Developments intends to take full advance of such opportunities, which both increase the productivity of natural resources (in this case, wood), and cut input and waste costs.
For example, the appropriate application of world class sawmill technology will greatly boost wood conversion efficiency compared with typical African mills. This effort will directly translate into less wood waste and more revenue to Ghana.
Similarly, equipment selection and maintenance, as well as integrating IT into transport management, will vastly improve fuel consumption.
Environmental Certification
To help partners and consumers understand the company’s environmental commitment, CSR Developments is applying to the SmartWood Rediscovered Wood Certification Standard offered by Rainforest Alliance. The Standard is designed to ensure that wood products only come from exceptional operations, managed by companies committed to biodiversity, conservation and community engagement.
To complement the certification plans, CSR Developments is also exploring joining the World Wildlife Fund’s Global Forest Trade Network, which plays a critical role in promoting sustainable forest management – a goal that fits well with the CSR Developments company mission.
The company’s operations are unique, with unique environmental benefits. CSR Developments wishes to make those benefits widely known, so that partners, from families buying furniture to multinational corporations, can make informed decisions about which wood products provide the best environmental benefits.
As a result, CSR Developments is exploring innovative environmental performance systems, such as the Ecological Footprint, in addition to industry standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative.
As the leader in a new industry with environmental risks, as well as benefits, CSR Developments is going to make mistakes, but it can commit to its partners that it will admit them, report honestly, and strive to continuously improve its environmental performance. As a triple bottom line company, it could do no less.
Comment on the CSR Developments environmental initiatives: send email
Review the World Bank Operational and Safeguard Policies: http://worldbank.org/
(search for: Operational and Safeguard Policies)
Review the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) Environmental and Social Standards: http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/Content/EnvSocStandards
Request a copy of the ESIA report (Environmental and Social Impact Assessment): send email
