The Relationship Between Use of Unutilized Materials and Sustainable Forestry

In our Otonomori activities, we also offer suggestions on ways to use wood that help to achieve sustainable forests. In order to obtain beautiful tone, we have, to date, focused on careful selection and utilization of wood with a beautiful grain that is free of knots and cracks. However, the sections of wood that we reject because they do not meet Yamaha quality standards are still a part of the same tree, and are precious forest resources. At present, some of the wooden materials that are pared away during the careful selection process for instrument production are discarded on-site as "unutilized materials" with no way to be used. Finding ways to use these materials effectively would help us to create more products from a single tree, increasing the value of the raw timber itself.
Our Otonomori activities are intended to develop new materials that leverage the inherent properties of these unutilized materials, which have the same excellent acoustic properties and feel as the parts of the trees that are suitable for making instruments. We are trying to draw out the latent value of these unutilized materials by developing new materials that inherit their properties, then using them for instruments.
We hope to fully utilize the wood that we have cultivated together with the people of forest regions, without letting any go to waste. By finding a use for these hitherto unutilized materials, we can maximize the value of each tree to forest regions, in turn contributing to the development of local communities and leading to sustainable forestry. This use of unutilized materials is part of our forestry development activities that allow us to utilize materials suitable for musical instruments in a sustainable manner.