Norbord is committed to sourcing all of its timber from responsibly- managed forests. All of our European sites have the capacity to manufacture to Forest Stewardship Council standards.

Yes, all our European products are certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards.

Norbord continues to make great strides in reducing reliance on fossil fuels and increasing the use of biomass fuels. In Europe, the company’s biomass comes from bark and wood residue in the manufacturing process and none is purchased from outside sources. As a whole, it uses more than one million metric tons of biomass every year for energy – which is the equivalent of about two million barrels of oil. This demonstrates Norbord’s ongoing commitment to the environment.

All our boards are manufactured to E1 classification which is the lowest recognized classification, it is the lowest standard of formaldehyde release able to be classified under EN13986, which is the European standard. Class 1 means that ‘panels can be used without causing an indoor air concentration of greater than 0.1ppm formaldehyde in conditions according to ENV717-1’ – this is the European standard test method for determining formaldehyde release. In fact, although in the UK there is no requirement to produce boards to E1 or mark boards with the CE mark Norbord does both – so our products can be purchased with confidence.

In addition, Norbord plans to be certified in the near future to produce chipboard and MDF to the more stringent CARB (Californian Air Resources Board) requirements.

After delivering to customers our lorries are ‘back filled’, which means they rarely run empty. Our trailers are specially adapted to collect wood chips from sawmills, bring them to our sites, offload and then fill again with finished product for delivery to customers.

In Europe, our aim is zero wood waste material leaving our sites and our processes follow the cycle of reduce, recycle, reuse. The green wood that we use in the production in OSB is harvested from forest thinnings and in MDF it is wood chips from sawmills. In both cases we are turning the waste from other processes into useable products that locks up the CO2 as carbon in the boards. Our chipboard is made from over 70% of post consumer and business wood waste. The material that we cannot convert into product is used to create energy for our processes. Very little wood waste leaves our sites for landfill but instead is converted to beneficial uses.

We recognise that all business activities will have some impact upon our environment but work hard to minimise these effects. Our active communication programmes with all our neighbours where our sites operate ensures open dialogue about issues and concerns. In addition, we endeavour to also make a positive difference to the communities in which we operate through a variety of local initiatives such as supporting school initiatives, local sports clubs and parish council activities.

The Inverness mill was the first OSB plant in Europe to receive Forestry Stewardship Council accreditation.

Significant investment in our Cowie operation continues to improve environmental performance, the most recent being a biomass heat energy plant and an upgrade of the WESP (wet electronic static precipitator) that filters wood fibre moisture.

In response to concerns from local residents at Cowie, we had bespoke silencers fitted to our cooling fans and upgraded the WESPs that clean out the steam emissions from our chimneys.

The South Molton plant has led the field in championing sustainable forestry practices. The site was the first chipboard or particleboard manufacturer in the UK to be certified to Forestry Stewardship Council chain of custody standards and to obtain the environmental management system standard ISO14001.