Future consumers’ understanding of sustainability in the forest business

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative research is to study the future consumers’ expectation of sustainability in relation to forestry industry as well as the relation of sustainability information and consumers. The aim of this research is to understand how consumers view the forest industry in the future and its products in terms of sustainability as well as how consumers perceive sustainability information that is currently available in the market. An online quantitative survey was used for this research in two countries, namely Finland and Hong Kong during the April to May in 2015. Only primary data is used for this research and it was collected from universities in both countries. Research results indicated that consumers consider the forest industry is currently sustainable in general but improvement should be done in the future. Their knowledge of sustainability in forest industry seem to be low. Consumers from Hong Kong and Finland have different opinion in forestry sustainability. Consumers in Hong Kong seem to be more critical in its sustainability performance. In terms of the relation of sustainability information and consumers, they do not search sustainability information often but do read it if it is available on packaging. Consumers claimed to take the information into account when they purchase if it is available on packaging. Label is found to be more helpful than words in information presentation. In addition, label with scale and short explanation is found to be the most useful label formulation for consumers.