Preserving Music Culture for the Next Century:
Yamaha’s Timber Due Diligence and Sustainable Sourcing

Why Do We Continue to Choose Timber as a Material for Musical Instruments?

Timber is used in many musical instruments, such as the piano, string instruments, and woodwind instruments. However, timber has a variety of inherent characteristics. Each tree species possesses particular acoustics. The tone and resonance of musical instruments significantly change, depending on the type of timber used.

For example, spruce, a needle-leaved tree of the pine family, is light and strong. Moreover, it is the ideal material of choice for the top plate of violins since it transmits vibrations efficiently. In addition, as the broad-leaved maple tree of the soapberry family is quite solid and dense, it is particularly used in the back and neck of string instruments. Maple wood contributes to an instrument’s rich sound.

However, amid an outcry over the depletion of wood resources, the difficulty of obtaining the best timber for musical instruments has greatly increased compared to the past. Currently, the Yamaha Group procures over 70 species of timber from 26 countries, primarily in Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe. However, there are very few types of timber that have outstanding appearance and workability in addition to producing high-quality sound.

Yamaha’s Timber Due Diligence

Yamaha values the three elements of quality (Q), cost (C), and delivery (D), and additionally has long been committed to the creation of a system for timber due diligence to carry out procurement with a focus on sustainability.

For instance, Yamaha conducts investigations based on surveys related to the place of origin, legality of thinning, and resource sustainability for timber that is purchased. All suppliers (entities supplying timber) are subject to a detailed investigation into the degree and type of risk for each timber supply. When timber has been determined to have a high risk, an additional investigation is conducted that includes local site visits to implement an even more stringent check of legality.

In 2007, the Yamaha Group Timber Procurement Policy was drawn up. This policy prohibits the illegal trimming of timber that adversely impacts local communities, such as violating the human rights of indigenous peoples living near forests, and the procurement of genetically modified tree species that collapse ecosystems.

In addition, to procure timber that is from transparent supply sources and that has been legally trimmed and sold, we have endeavored to expand utilization of certified timber that is approved by a third party.

Making Timber Origins Transparent and Creating Sustainable Musical Instruments

Furthermore, in April 2022 we set a new goal of utilizing 75% sustainably sourced timber. However, to accomplish this, the question arose of how to evaluate non-certified timber with low market volume.

For this, we sought the cooperation of Preferred by Nature, an international environmental organization that supports the construction of due diligence. Under its supervision, Yamaha formulated our own assessment items and judgment criteria for sustainably sourced timber in May 2023.

In the fiscal year ending in March 2024, the criteria for risk assessment used in timber due diligence will be made more stringent. In the same period, the utilization rates of timber with low legal risk and sustainably sourced timber are as follows.

However, not all timber suppliers and forest owners agree with our approach. Yamaha places great value on actually traveling to local sites and speaking in person with the individuals involved. During that process, we also create a Timber Procurement Map that identifies forests that could potentially lead to environmental destruction to gather knowledge.

Sustainable Timber Procurement is Essential to Music and the Environment in the Future

The vision of the future a century from now toward which Yamaha is striving is linked with the actions of confirming the legality and sustainability of timber through timber due diligence, while simultaneously creating an environment that cultivates timber over the long term that is suitable for musical instruments.

For example, the Otonomori (Forest of Sound) Activities are also important endeavors. Together with local residents, these endeavors aim to create a cycle that encompasses planting rare tree species used in musical instruments and utilizing them in manufacturing instruments.

Of course, there is no expectation of short-term returns since achieving this requires a vast amount of time, decades and centuries. Nevertheless, Yamaha is tackling these endeavors not only to achieve the optimization of timber procurement volume by improving forests, but also with the conviction that they will lead to creating local jobs and increasing the number of people who find joy in musical instruments.

In that sense, Yamaha believes our endeavors to procure timber play an important role that connects with persons engaged in forestry, manufacturers of musical instruments, and the next generation of players of musical instruments.

While further strengthening cooperation with timber suppliers and forest owners around the world, Yamaha continues striving to pass on rich music cultures to future generations. This is because we want people to enjoy the exquisite sounds of acoustic musical instruments even a century from now.