Precious Woods climate impact

Our carbon stock

The forests managed by Precious Woods sustainably store around 227 million tonnes of carbon. Sustainable forest management reinforces forests’ role as carbon stocks and sinks. Moreover, it reduces CO₂ emissions from forest operations. Additionally, we are actively developing REDD+ projects to provide high-quality carbon compensation to customers in the mid-term.

Carbon positive products

Wooden building materials from natural forests have superior carbon accounts compared with other building materials throughout their entire life cycle. In 2023, a life cycle assessment of species from the Congo Basin was conducted by the International Tropical Timber Association using data from Precious Woods. We launched a project with the renowned Dutch consultancy SHR to quantify the life-cycle impact of our Brazilian products. The results will be available in 2026. As we are not serving the end customer, unfortunately we cannot affect the recovery of final products that have reached the end of their life cycle.

Our climate targets

A significant part of our emissions relates to Scope 3 emissions, particularly from sea and road freight, for which low-carbon alternatives remain limited. In addition, the forest industry still relies heavily on fossil fuels, resulting in high Scope 1 emissions. The main indicator for making our Scope 1 emissions comparable over time is to link them to the harvesting volume. We use the Scope 1 carbon intensity per m³ harvested as a parameter and our objective is to keep it below 0.04 tCO₂/m³/year. Since 2010, we have continuously increased our harvesting volumes whilst keeping our carbon intensity below this threshold on average, not reaching this target in 2025 with an intensity of 0.047 tCO₂/m³. This can be explained by the fact that emissions can vary significantly due to changes in forest structure and internal logistics influenced by weather beyond our control. In addition, changes in harvesting volumes do not necessarily translate into a linear increase or decrease in emissions as support functions must be maintained regardless of volume. An important part of our Scope 1 emissions stems from a lack of grid connection in Gabon, where we are obliged to generate electricity from fossil fuels, whereas in Brazil, we use renewable energy. Green energy projects are underway in Gabon, and we aim to use them to bring our emissions below 0.03 tCO₂/m³/year in the mid-term. We do not apply an internal carbon price. Given our business model, which is based on the preservation of forest carbon stocks, we consider that operational cost structures already reflect the economic implications of carbon. All our emissions reductions must come from improved operations, not from offsetting through carbon credits.

Energy consumption¹

Electricity consumption in GJ: 34 604

From the Grid: 1.50 %

Renewable: 98.50 %

1 Includes MIl Madeiras, MIL Energia Renovável, Compagnie Equatoriale des Bois and Precious Woods Holding. Energy generated by diesel generators is not included to avoid double accounting, as it is accounted for in the carbon account.