Te Namu Timber is a family-owned West Coast company, which started in 2014 following a large cyclone on the West Coast of the South Island. Working with the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for Primary Industries as well as private landowners, we selectively extracted small amounts of timber from large areas on the Northern West Coast. Working with the Resource Management Act and salvage permits, we also worked on salvaging and milling large Rimu, and Beech logs from the riverbanks of the two main rivers that run through our farm block.
Our approach to environmental management is different from a lot of others in our line of business. As local owners of the land, and guardians of the area, we feel a personal responsibility to hand the land to our children in a better state than we took it over. As such, we regularly engage with agencies such as the Department of Conservation, Forest and Bird and the Regional Council to improve our environment and mitigate our impact. We have recently set aside areas as protected wetland, as well as fencing off and planting out riparian strips on our waterways.
Our company has strong leadership in ‘environmental management,’ areas of compliance, risk mitigation and health and safety management, with our lead team having many years’ experience in these areas.
ACTING LOCALLY
We process and dry our timber locally which provides a positive economic impact. Throughout the process we have developed a strong team of local contractors, processers, milling operators and a large network of local customers that develop our product into innovative interior timbers, artworks and premium timber furniture. Focusing on Safety has been a key component of our success so far, and we have developed a strong Environmental, Health and Safety culture. Built around our ethos of ‘Thinking Twice before Action’, we have developed a code of conduct for our contractors, and developed and documented procedures for our team, including risk mitigation and documented Environmental Safety Analysis for key tasks.
RESPONSIBLE PARTNERSHIPS
Our goal has been to develop a range of premium products from our resource. We have gone on to source sustainably grown hardwood timbers to add to our range.
Our partners provide us with some of the world’s hardest and most beautiful timbers from Argentina (Guajuvira) and Garapa to complete our range of flooring, panelling, decking and speciality timbers. Guajuvira is not listed in the CITES Appendices and the International Union for Conservation of Nature reports that the Guajuvira tree as a species of least concern, so sustainability is assured.
We have partnered with the Natural Paint Company for our oils and varnishes. For every 1m² of timber finish that we supply, the Natural Paint Company will purchase 1m² of Amazonian rainforest through a rainforest trust. To put this into perspective, for every 10 L of paint you use, you will be directly saving around 8 car parking spaces of the forest from deforestation.