Sustainable Timber,
Social Enterprise.
Heartwood firewood is 100% plantation grown on farms across Victoria. Our firewood is harvested at age 12-20 years.
Our firewood will generally contain a mixture of one or two of our plantation species. The most common ones include yellow stringybark and red mahogany. Other species include silvertop ash, coast grey box and red ironbark. Our plantation eucalyptus species all have naturally high density. Tests have demonstrated that even our youngest wood (12-14 years) has a density in the range of 650-900 kilograms per cubic metre, which is around 80% of mature trees. For comparison, mature red gum is typically 900-1100 kilograms per cubic metre.
Social Enterprise Connection.
Heartwood Firewood has a partnership with Beyond Subsistence, which is a development organisation working specifically with farmers and schools in Africa through our Sprout Program.
The Sprout program is currently undertaken in schools in regional Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. The program up skills teachers to deliver curriculum that covers agroforestry, conservation and food nutrition. The school also receives a kitchen garden, which delivers valuable food for student lunches and provides them with a practical environment to implement their learning. The program also integrates a range of fruit and timber trees into the school yard, demonstrating multipurpose trees, which can provide fruit, timber, shade, shelter and amenity value. For more information visit beyondsubsistence.org.au
Sprout Program
The Sprout program is delivered by our Project Partners over a period of months including the teacher training, kitchen garden establishment and tree planting.
Students gain valuable skills and knowledge in agroforestry and food nutrition in addition to having fruit and vegetables integrated into their diets (schools provide lunches for students). This is particularly important given that many farming families are headed by children - HIV epidemic impacted 18.5% of the population of 15-49 year olds in the early 1990s.
Several Australian schools, businesses and individuals have chosen to partner with one of our schools in Africa. This has delivered mutual benefits.