When you go into a supermarket you have masses of choices to make, but think specifically about vegetables. You can now choose ‘ordinary’ or ‘organic’ and consumers are increasingly opting for the latter. But ask yourself two questions: are the organic vegetables specified under a particular scheme and do you believe they’re actually organic?
There’s little evidence of specific schemes being promoted, so I reckon the majority of shoppers choosing organic vegetables simply believe that they are organic – after all, supermarkets are massive businesses with reputations to keep.
So why is the timber industry so hooked on selling specific certification schemes? Why are we making life so difficult for ourselves? When you run a break bulk operation, or have the same product from suppliers using different schemes, it is virtually impossible to separate them.
The answer seems to be that we allowed ourselves to be pushed into this situation because, as usual, the trade didn’t see what was coming and offer a viable alternative.
So, what can we do about it and is there any point? The UK is world renowned for its work, through CPET, in approving certification schemes. This gives us a method of creating an umbrella over approved schemes, so that we can potentially put certified materials together and sell them more easily. We would have to create that trust by underwriting it as an industry.
This would improve availability and thereby increase interest and – hey presto – we’d be selling masses more certified timber. With all the talk emanating from events such as the recent Wood Futures Conference and, of course, the Olympics ethos of 100% sustainable timber, we must find ways to make it easy to sell.
If any of this seems to make sense – or not – please write to TTJ and give your views. This could be a way of simplifying certification and widening the market for sustainable timber and that would be good for us all.
