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Browsing by Subject "wood products"

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  • Environmental Performance Measures in Finnish Wood Product Companies 
    Perttula, Sini (2012)
    The green markets are growing all the time and many different environmental performance measures (EPMs) such as forest certificates, eco-labels, footprint calculations and environmental management systems have emerged in the past few decades. These measures help companies to prove the origin of wood and the environmental friendliness of their products and production processes. This qualitative study examined how Finnish wood products companies use different environmental performance measures in both supply and demand side of the wood products market and the practices and problems related to environmental communication. Seventeen personal interviews among Finnish wood products value chain professionals were conducted in order to find the industry perspectives on the development needs in environmental performance of the wood products. The results of this study indicate that the most commonly used environmental performance measures in Finnish wood product companies are forest certificate PEFC and the standard of ISO14001. In contrast, the use of other ecolabels as well as Life Cycle Assessment methods (LCA) and related tools were relatively uncommon. The main drivers for use of EPMs were customer requirements (especially in certain environmentally sensitive export markets) and strategic decisions to act responsibly. The most important issue in environmental performance measures was perceived to be the ability to document trustworthiness of company operations. Also the origin of wood was recognized as an important issue. It also seems that forest certificates and ISO14001 standard are more important in the export markets than in the domestic markets. The supply chains for wood products are often long and complex and therefore the environmental information of the products does not always reach the end-consumers. The communication between wood product companies in the B2B markets is mainly based on personal relationships. Environmental issues are mentioned, but in most of the companies, they are still in passive use. Companies that want to stand out in the future need to start focusing on new green strategies and providing more detailed environmental information on their products and processes.
  • Social Media in Wood Products Marketing and Collecting of End User Driven Product Development Ideas 
    Haarasilta, Teemu (2013)
    The concept of social media includes a wide range of online, word-of-mouth forums including blogs, company sponsored discussion boards, chat rooms, consumer product or service ratings websites, and social networking sites. Social media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers and consultants try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of applications such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. One of the main goals of an industrial company is to execute its new product development process in a way where new technological opportunities can be identified and commercialized before its competitors. In this study it was investigated how wood processing companies, log house builders and hardware stores currently exploit social media in their commercial efforts such as marketing and sales. Further it was also examined do wood processing companies, log house builders and hardware stores use social media in their new product development (NPD) process. The empirical part of the study was carried out by interviewing a small number of companies and conducting a desk research of the social media activity of a larger number of companies. Most of the companies studied were present in social media. The type and the intensity of social media presence varied depending on the type of the company. E.g. hardware stores used social media merely for marketing and sales related purposes whereas in wood processing companies the focus was on communication and PR. Besides the normal customer feedback systems there was no evidence that the companies of this study would actively use social media in collecting end user driven ideas for R&D purposes. Based on the theoretical background, framework of the study, desk research and company interviews a model for collecting feedback and product development ideas from end users is created. Furthermore some ideas for more effective usage of social media regarding the topic of the study are offered as well.

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