Pfleiderer Deutschland GmbH

Pfleiderer is a leading manufacturer of high-quality wood-based materials and laminates that are used in the fast-growing market for high-class kitchens and furniture as well as in outdoor applications and timber construction in Western Europe.

At Pfleiderer, sustainability has been closely linked to the renewable material wood for over 130 years. The company places a special focus on sustainable procurement and production, the reduction of carbon emissions and the protection of the environment.

Pfleiderer does not operate a site in or near protected areas. We are therefore focusing on evaluating our impact on biodiversity in our supply chains. The responsible and sustainable use of wood as a renewable resource is at the heart of our business activities. It is our goal to keep wood in the material cycle for as long as possible. The repeated processing of wood helps to relieve the burden on forests and conserves resources. Since wood is also a very efficient CO₂ reservoir, about one ton of CO₂ per cubic meter of wood remains bound over the extended service life of the material.

Around 80 percent of the raw materials used in our chipboard bodies are sawmill residues and recycled wood. The remaining 20 percent stems from thinnings and damaged wood, mainly from domestic forests. Since 2007, all fresh wood and décor papers have come exclusively from controlled sources, and more than two-thirds are certified according to FSC or PEFC.

We have an indirect impact on biodiversity through our contribution to mitigating climate change. Climate change is one of the main drivers of species and habitat loss. Climate protection measures are therefore of great importance in the protection of biodiversity.

As a wood-based panel manufacturer, we need thermal and electrical energy all year round, for drying the wood chips and heating the presses. That's why we generate energy at all five locations in Germany. Through measures at our sites and changes in the electricity mix, we reduced greenhouse gas emissions in Scope 1 and 2 by 41% from 2020 to 2024.

Since the 1990s, we have been using combined heat and power (CHP) plants in Baruth, Gütersloh and Neumarkt, in which we use biomass to generate the electricity and heat required for our production. In accordance with the cascading use of wood, we use waste wood as biomass that is no longer suitable for the recycling cycle. In 2024, we generated a total of 88 percent of our energy from biomass, which corresponds to an annual increase of 1 percent since 2020. Since 2023, we have been self-sufficient with green electricity from our three power plants for all five locations.

We are currently taking a closer look at the impact of our business activities on biodiversity and the consequences of species extinction for us as a wood-based panel manufacturer. We use appropriate key figures to determine the impact of our business activities on biodiversity. This requires cooperation with our upstream suppliers – on the one hand to create and collect appropriate key figures, and on the other hand to develop partnerships to limit possible negative impacts and positively influence biodiversity in the spirit of the UN Decade of Restoration in our supply chain.

As with our memberships in the UNGC, we also consider the exchange within Biodiversity in Good Company to be a key success factor.