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We are chuffed to be featured over on Zero Carbon Moreland. "Timber is a key ingredient when renovating or undertaking DIY projects at home, but few of us know how to avoid buying unsustainable timber – especially timber logged from irreplaceable old growth tropical rainforests in SE Asia and the Amazon. Enter CERES Fair Wood. Started by CERES in 2017, Fair Wood social enterprise’s mission is to teach us how to replace timbers like common decking Merbau or Cumaru, with locally-grown, affordable and faster-growing options. “Fair Wood timber is different to what you get in a typical wood supply store,” says Fair Wood General Manager, Hayden Cronin. “Everything we stock has been sourced locally – from trees that need to be cut down for safety reasons to well managed plantations. We source trees from homeowners, councils, arborists, farmers – people keen to make sure that trees that need to be cut down are used for something more valuable than woodchips.” Fair Wood’s huge range of timbers can be used for everything from veggie boxes, decking, fencing and furniture making, to home construction. “We keep our prices competitive through short supply chains and know that by sourcing locally, we’re employing local people,” says Hayden. “People love that every piece of timber in our warehouse has a story. We know where each tree was grown, why it came down and the name of the miller. This knowledge translates into people’s projects and makes them special.” If you’re thinking about using timber for a project “drop into our Preston warehouse and say hi”! You can read it here and see the other great Moreland company we keep.  

It’s small-scale farmers who have small lot timbers to move and that need a market. So much of this type of timber historically, and indeed still today, doesn’t have an outlet to be sold. There is where Fair Wood comes in and indeed is one of our major reasons for being, to create a market for this amazing timber that will otherwise, often, become a waste product.

Why burning Sugar Gum for our firewood is better than some other more readily available alternatives out there This time of year, and almost any place you go to buy your firewood, you will see (River) Red Gum. It is ridiculously easy to source and you would be forgiven for thinking it’s the only wood you should be burning. But, like most things, there is more to it than initially meets the eye. The majority of the Red Gum we burn in Victoria is sourced from private and State forests that are in the environmentally significant Murray and Darling River floodplains of Victoria and New South Wales.  And whilst it appears to be readily available and burns to generate a lot of heat, its harvesting comes at a heavy price to the ecological health of our old growth remnant native forests.   Collecting fallen or dead trees from native forests for our fires is an old tradition but these fallen or dead trees are homes for many endangered squirrel gliders, brush tailed tuans and carpet snakes.   So what’s the alternative? As a general rule of thumb Red or Box gum almost always is coming out of remnant native forests, so that’s worth remembering when making your buying decision. Ask your supplier about where they source theirs from. Fortunately, there are alternatives too. It’s best practice to look for Sugar or Blue Gum sources. This is what is currently being grown in sustainably managed forests. For any other brix or composite products, sourcing cannot be guaranteed so should be avoided.       CERES Farm-grown firewood makes use of Sugar Gum plantation thinnings that would otherwise be burnt as waste. These forests are established in largely cleared landscapes such as Victoria’s Goldfields and the Riverina and has a range of benefits for both the natural environment and the health of our farming communities. We are very fortunate to be working with the good folks over at Wood4Good. They want to see forestry become part of our collective solution by planting forests in a way that provide a perpetual source of renewable materials, bio-energy and income. They do this by planting new forests on degenerated farmland and then effectively manage and sensitively harvest over time so that biodiversity is protected.     Sugar Gum is also a much better long and hot burning source than other alternatives such as Red Gum. Sugar Gum has a Relative Available Heat Value of 95% where as (River) Red Gum is 81%. (Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Gavin Brook 2004). When burnt properly, using firewood from sustainable sources to warm your home can be less polluting and more environmentally sustainable than other methods as well. It’s good to know that your fire source this winter can have many positive impacts for our ecological and social communities.   Get in touch with us today to order your winter’s worth of firewood. For further reading about sustainable firewood please visit: https://vnpa.org.au/conserving-nature/sustainable-firewood/   Read more about Wood4Good here.

Rowan Reid is serious aussie agroforestry academic, who created his amazing Bambra Agroforesty Farm, in the lush Otways. Rowan has written a book about Australian Agroforestry called 'Heartwood'. It is beautifully illustrated and totally inspiring.

Timber is a controversial material among environmentally conscious builders, architects and consumers. While many rightly favour it as it’s a renewable resource that sequesters carbon, the role of timber harvesting in deforestation and habitat loss around the world is indisputable. But getting rid of timber entirely is not possible or desirable in most of our builds. What are sustainability-minded consumers to do?

Thursday 26th April, 2018 was a big day for CERES' newest social enterprise Fair Wood - our name got called out and now we are extremely grateful recipients of $20,000 in start-up funding from Darebin Council and Melbourne Innovation Centre's Darebin Pitch-It Competition.

CERES Fair Wood wins Darebin competition for start-ups! March 2018. 'Architect Paul Haar came up with the idea to counter the huge amount of timber illegally farmed from countries like Myanmar and Cambodia and support sustainable and environmentally conscious farmers...CERES Fair Foods general manager Chris Ennis, who currently heads the project, said the same people who buy electric cars and fair trade coffee would buy timber they knew was sustainable...“It’s about buying wood you know has been grown with a social and environmental approach in mind,” says Chris Ennis