Prospects for spread of certified forest products in the construction industry

Abstract

Japan is one of the world's leading holders of chain of custody (CoC) certificates. Paper products companies have constituted the majority of certificate holders. In this study, we examined the current status and prospect of the Certified Forest Products (CFPs) markets in the construction industry which is the major wood-consuming industry along with the paper industry. A questionnaire survey was conducted in June 2009, and 203 non-certified construction companies located in Tokyo, Osaka, or Aichi Prefecture and 39 CoC-certified companies nationwide responded. Although introduction of environment-friendly wood products (EWPs) was becoming common even among non-certified companies, most of them were interested in recycled or thinned wood as EWPs. In addition, they weren't familiar with either forest certification or related schemes. Thus, it was unlikely the growing markets of EWPs in the construction industry would lead expansion of CFPs markets immediately. Compared to non-certified companies, certified ones had the following features: they appreciative more of importance of EWPs, they put much emphasis on environmental aspects when they selected wood materials, they had the sole discretion over wood procurement, and had kept track of supply chain of wood products even before they were certified. Improvement of information service system and establishment of supply system were indispensable to expand CFPs markets in the industry.