HS Timber CSR highlights of 2022 - Together we are responsible!

• Over 2.6 million Euro in CSR contributions in 2022 in Romania
• Together! initiative focused in 2002 on energy efficiency matters
• Contributions for community healthcare, nature protection and education
• 1 million trees planted successfully with the Tomorrow’s Forest Foundation

HS Timber, a company present in Romania with four wood processing units, has sponsored projects to the tune of over 2.6 million Euro in Romania in 2022 alone. Major areas of intervention are social, environmental, and forward-looking projects.

“Together we are responsible, and we demonstrated it again in 2022,” said Dan Bănacu, General Manager of HS Timber Productions Romania. “Although a challenging year also, we still offered financial, and material support to local communities, aiming to make the difference where there was a greatest need for help, and we also paid a special attention to sensitive topics concerning the high energy prices. This way, our Together! initiative has met a new area of application.”

Energy matters!

In 2022 the company continued the Together! initiative - launched in 2020 as an immediate response to the needs of local communities during the sanitary situation caused by COVID-19 (1)(2). The focus of this year was energy efficiency projects. In Bacău county, HS Timber financed solar photovoltaic plants in educational institutions: George Enescu school, Primii Paşi Nursery in Moineşti, and Ciprian Porumbescu school in Comăneşti.

In Siret, the company sponsored the Hospital for Chronic Diseases with 70 tonnes of pellets, ensuring heating during the cold season. It is the seventh year in a row when the hospital institution was supported by HS to provide heating comfort to patients.

Also in Siret, the company is a reliable partner for the Siret Social Assistance Directorate, an entity that strives to improve the lives of fellow citizens in the community - be they single grandparents, institutionalised people, and other vulnerable individuals. If in previous years, with HS Timber’s support, the Elderly Home was rebuilt, now the company contributed to continuous modernisations, financed the establishment of the Home Care Service, and contributed to the roof’s restauration at the Elderly Home.

The group also provided to local communities in Bacău county with one of the most appreciated products - blockboards made in the Comăneşti factory. Important volumes were provided for renovation of facilities, and construction of furniture.

Taking care of our communities’ health

The construction of Maria Beatrice, the First National Pediatric Centre in Romania for children with cerebral palsy, neuromotor disorders and trauma is a project of a great importance for the Group, so that in 2022 the group contributed again, this time for the establishment of a therapy room at Maria Beatrice, in Alba-Iulia.

In Suceava county, in Cajvana, HS Timber financed a pilot project, and start-up of a foundation to promote the public wellbeing, and especially to improve the quality of youth through the means of education but also by providing specialized psychologists and medical advice to maintain health and develop better coping skills for now and later.

As local communities are in a great need of improvements, in Comăneşti the group financed medical equipment for surgery rooms at the Ioan Lascăr Hospital, while in Sfântu Gheorghe, it financed the purchase of an ultrasound machine needed in Internal Medicine department, four vital signs monitors needed at Nephrology section, one uroflowmeter needed at Urology sector, one automated cardio-defribillator needed in Dermatology sector at the Dr. Fogolyán Kristóf County Emergency Hospital.

The company also contributed to the purchase of a SMURD type B2 ambulance, with the help of which the rescuers will be able to intervene to provide first aid in the town of Covasna, and in the neighbouring villages, which add up to 19 localities with a population of almost 28,000 inhabitants.

An equipment with a Neopuff™ resuscitation system of the neonatology department for the Moineşti Municipal Emergency Hospital was also sponsored by HS Timber.

Because education is the foundation

It all starts with educating the young generations. HS Timber brings its support in preventing the school drop-out among 50 kids from disadvantaged families in Rădăuţi, through financing one of the soul projects, the activities at the Maria Ward Social Centre.

The Group’s dedication to the afterschool in Reci, and Robert Cole Association in Comăneşti also became a tradition over the years, and 2022 was not an exception.

Providing study equipment, furniture and IT equipment is also one of the actions at the Varadi Jozsef School in Sfântu Gheorghe, Venczel Jozsef Highschool in Miercurea Ciuc, Prichindelul kindergarten in Rădăuţi.

In Comăneşti, talented children have the chance now to study within the Phronesis Educational Centre, musical instruments such as piano or guitar, thanks to the HS blockboard factory’s implication.

A pilot project started this year with the Tomorrow’s Forest Foundation, aiming at training 300 students from the most important high schools in Comănești, Dărmănești, and Moinești on topics related to forest and environment protection.

Successful cooperation with Tomorrow´s Forest Foundation

Previous year marked the successful strategic cooperation with the Tomorrow’s Forest Foundation, when the initial target of 1 million trees planted in Romania on lands with regeneration issues was achieved. The costs for the care of the surfaces already planted in previous years were also covered and two urban forests were also planted.

Also, the first experiential learning pilot workshop for teachers and educators was held within the Education Programme, and within the responsible forestry programme ten mobile bridges that help protect biodiversity were put together. Communities for Tomorrow’s Forests Programme received grants and the winning projects will make, in their turn, positive impacts in their local communities.

Between 2010 and 2022 HS Timber Group’s sponsorships in Romania amounted to almost 18.5 million Euro.