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ABSTRACT:

CARBON NEGATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS

In an era where sustainability and environmental consciousness are at the forefront of consumer choices, Abodo represents a paradigm shift towards carbon-negative timber building materials. Crafted from sustainably sourced New Zealand Radiata Pine and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®), Abodo stands as a testament to responsible forestry practices and environmental stewardship.

For more than 20 years, Abodo has been working with rapidly renewable plantation timber to create beautiful, durable, carbon-beneficial feature timbers.

Formed in 2001 by the Gudsell family, Abodo remains a New Zealand family business with a purpose, owned by brothers Daniel and Nathan Gudsell.

Growing more for less – Our timbers are sustainably grown in New Zealand forests that we know and respect, whose rich soils and high annual rainfall ensure rapid growth. With a total forested area of 1.8 million hectares (Forest Owners Assn, 2018/19), New Zealand’s high yielding Radiata Pine plantations are the perfect source for raw material.

Minimising our impact – We choose only the highest quality logs, which are then sawn in close proximity to the plantation. This means that transport related emissions are minimised, and operational efficiencies are maximised.

Our strong partnerships with forest owners in New Zealand’s North Island ensure a consistent supply of high quality FSC® (FSC-C010962) certified logs.

Transforming Radiata Pine – Our timbers are precision modified for durability and stability at the sawmill site. Most companies that use wood modification technology source their timber from around the world, mainly shipping the timbers to Europe to process.

Our localised process reduces transport related emissions and increases speed and flexibility.

The collaboration with New Zealand glue and coating suppliers has been instrumental to our success and there will be more and exciting opportunities for us all in the future.

BIOGRAPHY:

Originally from The Netherlands Daan arrived in New Zealand in 1994. He started his career in 1991 working for a Dutch International Timber Trade Company (GWZ) in The Netherlands from where he was seconded to a subsidiary company in the Cameroons for two years managing sawmill and logging operations. The parent company had a stake in the Dutch version of a thermal modification of timber technology called Plato, one of the early movers in this space.

In New Zealand Daan was involved in starting up Asset Forestry Limited, a Forest Management Company, which became strong in the field of Forestry Logistics, taken over by Trimble Forestry in 2013. He joined Tunnicliffe Timber Company Limited as Managing Director in 2005 where he pioneered thermally modifying Radiata pine since 2008 finding niche markets in the exterior timber joinery and beekeeping supply markets. After exiting the business in 2015 he has been keeping bees and trading beeswax. In 2021 Daan joined Abodo Wood and as the R&D Manager is heavily involved in the thermally modified timber business again.

Daan has a B.Sc. in Forestry from the International Agricultural College Larenstein, Velp, The Netherlands and a Post Graduate Diploma in Forest Survey from the ITC Enschede, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente, The Netherlands.