Lancaster log company puts weight behind ‘walls of wood’ in South Africa to maintain supply and create jobs

With ten such walls in situ in South Africa, homeowners around Britain can rest assured that, despite global issues in sourcing wood, Logs Direct has no concerns about continuity of supply, having partnered with the business that is building not just these walls of wood but local resilience too.

As a result, Logs Direct customers buying this wood can not only secure the wood they need for their appliances but also support a vital social enterprise in South Africa, which is helping to enrich lives in five African townships in the Overberg region of the Western Cape.

This is because Proper Wood, to which Logs Direct has provided a vibrant retail platform via its online website, has already helped to create 450 jobs and generate positive impacts for 2500 people living in the five townships. With unemployment rates running at around 49% in Overberg, such job opportunities make a massive difference.

In addition, the social enterprise that has sprung up around the felling of wood is helping to combat an environmental threat for the townships – one caused by non-indigenous plants which extract water from local supplies,

making drought a constant worry.

A major culprit in the draining of water supplies is the eucalyptus tree, which is why the local government has sought to take back environmental control and fell these trees.

Proper Wood was founded in 2020, to make use of all of the resulting wood, as its owners recognised that, for all its environmental faults in South Africa, eucalyptus actually makes perfect firewood.

388 acres of this alien invasive species has been cleared, saving a water loss equivalent to the size of 106 Olympic size swimming pools (264,938m3).

When Logs Direct came across the Proper Wood product, it recognised the benefits for UK customers and saw that the sustainability behind the product’s story would match perfectly with other products in its range.

Proper Wood has provided employment opportunities to local people who can utilise the felled eucalyptus by preparing the product that arrives on the market.

Each piece of wood is, on average, around 800g in weight, and all of the logs produced to this size, are carefully stacked to dry naturally in the South African sun, at between 30°C and 35°C.

This creates the walls of wood that together constitute around 20 million pieces of eucalyptus.

Logs Direct’s sales director, Stephen Talbot, said: “The minute we came across this story and supplier, we knew this product was something that fits perfectly with our ethos of not just sourcing wood but also supporting local communities that need to generate income from their local resources.

“We also recognised how Logs Direct’s reach could really assist this product, by taking it out to more people via our long-established relationship in the wood fuel market and our distribution systems. We believe we are helping to make a difference in South Africa, as a result of our partnering with Proper Wood.”

Head to https://www.logsdirect.co.uk/ to find out more.