Exciting Visit to Gracemere Plantation Project!

Last Friday, we visited Bengworden in Gippsland, to see our parent company’s Gracemere plantation project in action.

We’re thrilled to share that our team helped to start the transformation of 957 hectares of land by beginning the first stage of a plantation process – the planting of 89,000 radiata pine trees. Sumitomo plan to ultimately plant a total of 770,000 trees on this site. This project will also earn Australian Carbon Credits Units under the new plantation forestry method as part of the Emissions Reduction Fund.

These trees, with a 27-year lifecycle to maturity and harvesting, aim to supply Sumitomo’s construction projects in Australia with homegrown timber. This initiative is a strategic move to safeguard us against future timber shortages, a challenge highlighted during the post-COVID building boom.

Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say that cutting down trees and then replanting them for timber and other products is one of the best ways to fight climate change. This is because the carbon stored in the wood products helps reduce overall carbon emissions.

We are incredibly proud to be part of a forward-thinking company that not only drives economic growth but also plays a pivotal role in combating climate change.