What does Swiss Made mean here?
From felling the tree in the forest to the sales talk with the service partner – everything takes place in Switzerland.
Native woods
We use 98 percent native woods from Eastern Switzerland. The boss personally buys the wood from the forestry offices or sawmills in the area. Thus we can guarantee constant quality from the forest road to the finished product that leaves our factory.
Ecology
We use the raw material wood as a renewable energy source. The steam generator for the bending shop as well as the heating for the factory building and the neighbouring property are supplied with energy exclusively by a modern wood heating system.
Local wood from sustainably managed forests instead of tropical wood with quality seal
The primeval forests in the tropics, Canada and Russia are being plundered by the globally active timber industry. Can seals of approval for sustainable use help? If the destruction of the primeval forests continues at the same pace, they will have disappeared in less than a hundred years down to the last tree.
With a share of 80%, slash-and-burn and subsequent soil erosion due to improper agriculture are the main causes. There are also large-scale settlement and energy projects. Last but not least, the wood industry is also responsible. “The international timber industry is playing an increasingly important role in this, and in many regions it is already the number one cause of destruction,” says Greenpeace in a statement.
In this context there is much talk of certified wood, of eco-labels for tropical wood from allegedly sustainable use, above all the FSC seal (Forest Stewardship Council). This is supported by WWF and Geenpeace with a lot of money.
According to experts, however, the project has several major drawbacks. Dietrich J. Weder, for example, asks in his book “Noah’s Ark Today”: “Who can always keep an eye on certified trunks on their long journey from the depths of the jungle, across the oceans to the furniture and DIY stores of the north?” Furthermore, he notes: “Whether tropical rainforests can be used for forestry purposes at all and what that would have looked like is ultimately not determined. In addition, a huge amount of non-renewable energy is also wasted on certified tropical timber due to the enormous transport distance.
Nevertheless, many large distributors are replacing the local wood products, which are usually ecologically very sensible, with cheaper, widely travelled woods with “eco-labels”.
As a company that manufactures wood products, how do we feel about this?
Tropical timber, whether from certified plantations or from illegal over-exploitation, is generally out of the question for us. For our sledges, for example, we only buy local ash wood. “I want to know in which forest this tree stood” Ernst Graf sen. used to say decades ago. This is what we are still known for today at the Thurgauer Forstbetriebe. Incidentally, over 90% of these are FSC-certified.
We ourselves see no point in participating in the FSC seal. It would mean for us to fall far short of our own ecological criteria and to support organisations that promote the worldwide trade in tropical timber in an irresponsible manner.
Whether furniture, flooring or sports sledges, no application justifies the use of jungle trees. In any case, there is a one hundred percent solution with native wood.
Erwin Dreier, 3R AG, Sulgen