Environment
Gallo Legnami S.p.A. firmly believes in environment safeguarding, which is why it decided to collaborate only with suppliers meeting the wood “Due Diligence” provisions, which adopted an ecologically sustainable use of wood areas and thus have been granted international forest certifications.
DUE DILIGENCE
Since March 3rd, 2013 the European Regulation 995/2010 has been into force all over Europe. It is aimed at eradicating the illegal trade of wood especially coming from developing countries. As a matter of fact, those who first introduce wood in the EU market, which are defined “Operators” (including Gallo Legnami), must apply a series of complex procedures and measures aimed at selecting suppliers which are deemed reliable, thus rendering the risk of buying illegal material “negligible”. Doing so implies considering all useful information, including the legislation of the country of origin and potential war conditions, which are not compatible with the legality assurance.
FSC®
Gallo Legnami S.p.A. has been one of the first Italian companies to obtain the Forest Stewardship Council certification: it is the most important certification standard in the world, which is supported by the main environmental groups, such as WWF and Greenpeace. The products holding this certification come from sustainably managed forests which meet the Forest Stewardship Council standards.
PEFC
Two thirds of the world’s certified forests are managed in compliance with PEFC sustainability standards. It is a chain of custody certification, or rather the chain from the sustainable management of forests to the sale of the end product. It has been developed by European governments and forestry enterprises in collaboration with local environmental groups.
SFI
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative is the main American standard. It entails an articulated system of principles, goals and measures, which were developed by foresters, environmental groups and scientists. It aims at combining the growth and constant felling of trees with the safeguarding of the fauna, wild plants, the soil and water quality. In North America, there currently are over 45 million hectares of forests, which are participating to the SFI, rendering it the most important American program for sustainable forestry.
ECO-SUSTAINABILITY OF WOOD
Real eco-sustainability is wood itself, as it is a natural resource, which is renewed by the normal growth of plants, unlike oil and many other raw materials. Wood production also fixes carbon dioxide, removing it from the atmosphere by means of the extraordinary process of photosynthesis on which life on Earth depends.
Actually, wood is the only raw material, which cleans the air, as it develops, whereas the production of all the others demand power which is generated by burning oil and releasing harmful gases and micropowders into the atmosphere. In that regard, it is important to know that when a plant is mature, its annual growth is very low and therefore does not fix carbon dioxide anymore. On the contrary, young plants grow very rapidly and therefore remove more CO² from the air. This implies that if we want a better planet, we shall cut mature trees only, replacing them with young plants, which will fix more carbon dioxide as they grow.
For all the above, wood is a sustainable and ecological material, but we shall not forget that reforestation after felling is of paramount importance, as it has happened in the last 10 years, during which the world wooded areas have grown.
