Forestry Tasmania's focus is shifting from being an internationally competitive land manager to being a globally trusted source of certified timber products and services. The shift in the company's corporate vision was part of the launch of the company's new vision, mission, set of corporate objectives, and values at a breakfast in Launceston this morning.
The changes reflect changing community values.
“The old corporate statements no longer reflect who we are as a business. The old statements over-emphasised the profit motive and under-emphasised our commitment to social and environmental outcomes," Managing Director Bob Gordon said.
"The changes are best illustrated by the revised corporate objectives. Under the old, the first corporate objective was to improve profit performance and returns to shareholders. "This objective implied that the business might be prepared to sacrifice good sound environmental management for a quick buck. That is not how we operate. Our business operates over 90 year time frames, and the profit result from one year to the next is not how we should be judged.
"We should be judged on how we use science to manage the forests so it delivers jobs, wealth, environmental and social outcomes for not only for this generation, but for our kids and their kids. "Our aim should not be to make an obscene profit this year, but to make sure that we are cutting at a slower rate than the forest is growing, that we are regenerating every patch of harvested forest, so that in 90 years there will be more forest not less.
"For that reason, the first corporate objective is not to increase profit, but to embrace science to achieve best practice environmental stewardship.
