The growth of forest certified products is driven more by the large DIY stores than consumer pressure, a new study suggests.
The study was carried out by Ian Munro as part of his MSc in environmental issues at Worcester University.
Mr Munro, who works for a door and joinery firm, interviewed 100 timber-buying customers at major DIY outlets and found just 4% knew the FSC logo and knew what it represented.
A total of 79% said they would not change suppliers to obtain certified goods.
The 77 national house-builders surveyed indicated that just 4% of their customers enquired about the source of the timber.
Further, 89% were not aware of any pressure in the past two years to use certified timber.
Mr Munro commented: ‘I do not think you can claim it [certification] is being driven by the market. I think the DIY stores have their own reasons for doing it – primarily to ensure timber supply and to limit the opportunity for any sort of direct action from pressure groups.’
Dr Alan Knight of B&Q plc said the conclusions did not surprise him. Customers usually ranked quality and price issues in front of the environment but they still cared about green issues.
A driving factor behind the growth of certified products was protecting the business from ‘risk’.
Dr Knight said: ‘If we are associated with bad forest management we risk customer loyalty, staff loyalty, our reputation and the long-term availability of some timber raw materials.’
Dr Steve Howard, director of WWF’s global forest and trade initiative, said DIY stores were anticipating market trends.
