Green Procurement through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification in the Private Sector. Perceptions and Willingness to Buy of Private Companies from Romania

Abstract

Companies can contribute to the achievement of the sustainability goals through their procurement function when they opt for green procurement. In the current paper, the authors focused on the procurement of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products. Having known that attitudes contribute to the definition of the individual’s behavioral model and, thus, of her/his “green” choices, the aim of the paper was to investigated attitudes related to the procurement of FSC certified products by people in charge of private company acquisitions. Research results were based on a survey, with a sample of 214 private companies from Romania. Results of binary logistic regression analysis indicate that companies that perceive a positive impact of FSC products on forest protection and on company image are more likely to replace conventional wood products with FSC ones when they have a similar price. When FSC products are more expensive than the conventional ones, companies will be more likely to buy them when economic benefits are present, too. From a practical perspective, the findings bring to the forefront the fact that companies can be stimulated to select FSC products at similar price over conventional ones by highlighting the contribution of the former to forest protection and the image benefits that they can bring.