One third of the company's own forests remain untouched and provide habitats for around 660 indigenous animal and plant species.
We sustainably manage 10,000 hectares of its own pine forests. These provide the raw material for our pencils and cover 86 percent of our worldwide wood demand.
Faber-Castell uses 100 percent
certified wood worldwide.
certified wood worldwide.
Every year, around 300,000 seedlings are planted in the company's own forests. We are growing one truckload of wood per hour.
Every product contains valuable raw materials. To extend their usability, many products can be refilled.
The Faber-Castell Group works on reducing plastics or replacing them with recycled materials.
Our own forests absorb more than 900,000 tonnes of CO2 and compensate the emissions of our production sites.
Faber-Castell covers 85 percent of the global energy demand from renewable sources.
From the tree to the pencil
Faber-Castell is the pioneer in its field of business in matters of environment-friendly industrial production methods and securing a long-term source of timber was foremost in its corporate thoughts as far back as the mid-1980s. In Brazil, the company uses fast-growing softwood from its managed forests and maintains its own tree nurseries. Saplings are continually planted out to replace each row of trees felled: a sustainable ecological cycle. Around 300,000 young trees of the type Pinus caribaea are planted and raised each year on a total area of some 10,000 hectares (100 km²), thousands of miles from the endangered Amazon rainforests. After 20 to 23 years they are large enough to be harvested as environmentally compatible raw material for black-lead and colour pencils. Not just the materials used but also the development, production methods, and disposal of all kinds of waste are subjected to critical analysis. For example, Faber-Castell played a pioneering role in the use of environment-friendly water-based paint for coating its wooden-cased pencils.
Biodiversity
One third of the company’s own forests in Brazil are native environment preserved and have become a biotope for rare animal and plant species. It is home to meanwhile 716 animal and plant species, such as white-eared puffbird. Of these, 50 species are threatened with extinction elsewhere.
FSC®
More than 90 % of the wood used for the worldwide production of Faber-Castell pencils come from 100 % FSC-certified forests, and thus originate from responsible sources.
FSC Chain of Custody Policy
PEFC
Faber-Castell uses PEFC-certified wood as an alternative to FSC-certified wood. Both certification schemes ensure the sustainable management and use for forest resources.
PEFC Chain of Custody Policy
PEFC Chain of Custody Policy
Eco Pencil
Timber from certified sustainable forestry (e.g. FSC, PEFC, SFI).
Waterbased Varnish
Faber-Castell was the first manufacturer to introduce the environmentally-friendly water-based varnish technology, which is used for almost all writing instruments produced at the main factory in Stein.