Enhancing wood products through ENplus, FSC and PEFC certifications: Which attributes do consumers value the most?

Abstract

The use of biofuels has proven to be fundamental in decreasing the impact of human activities on the environment and also in contributing to a more sustainable development. Wooden biomasses have historically been used for heating purposes and are still being used worldwide. The valorisation of wood products goes through certifications, in particular the ENplus certification guarantees quality and the FSC and PEFC certifications guarantee the origin of the products by forests managed according to the principles of sustainability.The aim of the work is to identify which attributes consumers value most when purchasing forest products used for heating, such as pellets.The paper sought to provide initial responses through an exploratory analysis carried out using a conjoint experiment based on linear assumptions and administering a questionnaire to pellet consumers in Italy, then cluster analysis using Ward's method has been applied.The conjoint analysis shows that price is the attribute with the highest importance; sustainability certification is the second most relevant attribute. Finally, the quality attribute linked to the ENplus label is the lowest relative importance score in the model.A cluster analysis was carried out on the individual utility pattern of respondents derived from the conjoint analysis to obtain a deeper understanding of the role of the assessed attributes and to find the relationship with socio-demographic characteristics. Three main groups were identified through clustering: “Price-sensitive purchasers”, Younger and sustainability-oriented purchasers”, “Quality-oriented purchasers”.The findings provide insights that can be used by retailers to better market their products. Furthermore, policy implications can be extrapolated from the study. Indeed, the forest certifications examined do not seem to differ in terms of usefulness, highlighting that consumers may not have a thorough understanding of the message mediated by them.