Borders first for biofuelsbusiness

Established originally as a fencing business utilising timber from the Roxburghe Estate woodlands, Floors Forestry, which has recently started trading at Bowmont Forest on the Roxburghe Estate, decided to expand in a new direction to take advantage of the environmental and cost saving benefits of using sustainable timber from the Estate for woodchips.

In 2008 the installation of a 720kw biomass boiler to supply heat to Floors Castle used wood chips grown and produced on the estate and this led to development of a new market for the Estate’s lowgrade roundwood timber.

Floors Castle made huge savings in cost and in carbon emissions they were producing. By switching from an oil-fi red heating system to a biomass boiler they saved 500 tonnes of CO2 a year, the equivalent of heating 10,000 houses for a day!

“Following on from this initiative it was decided to roll out the supply of woodchips to the Borders from this locally grown sustainable and environmentally friendly resource.

Peter Darling, Floors Forestry’s Manager said: “We are delighted to be able to offer fencing products and biofuel to customers in the Scottish Borders. We are in a unique position of being able to supply wood chips and logs that are sourced solely from timber grown on our Estate. With a significant investment in storage capacity and in the latest high specification wood chipping machinery this will allow us to produce premium wood fuel for the local market as well as offering a contract chipping service for farmers and other property owners.”

The Duke of Roxburghe said: “This is an exciting new venture on the Roxburghe Estate and we look forward to seeing the sustainably produced timber from the estate converted into competitively priced products for the local market. Timber has been grown in the woodland at Bowmont Forest since 1815 when the forest was thought to have been planted by soldiers returning home after the Battle of Waterloo.”