Green business practices in the wood industry sector – A review

Environmental aspects of the wood product supply chain have been on the agenda for a couple ofdecades now. It is claimed that unsustainable forestry practices may damage biodiversity and theprovision of forest ecosystem services, while wood is simultaneously perceived as a renewablematerial with a comparatively low carbon footprint. As is the case in other sectors, the role of thecustomer for fostering greener industry processes has also been highlighted, e.g. in forestcertification. The development of even more environmentally friendly processes relates closely tohow they are implemented and viewed among actors in the forest supply chain. The research ongreen practices in the wood industries has not been thoroughly collected and reviewed. Anassessment of the present knowledge on the matter is needed to establish the state of the art andfind approaches for future research efforts. This paper is an attempt to review and reflect upon thepublished business oriented research on green supply chains for wood products. The study isbased on articles retrieved in relevant databases and we focus on how the literature has developedthe main focus, approaches and main results. Many studies have investigated end-consumerpreferences for eco-labeled wood products, mainly in North America and Europe, while fewer areoriented toward e.g. communication of green properties or business to business relations. Thearticle provides an overview of problems that have been covered by research and identifies ‘whitespots’ where knowledge still is sparse. Finally, we summarize main findings, based on the review,and suggest strategies to increase the industry and societal relevance of the research on this topicarea.