%0 Research article
%T Environmental activity and forest certification in marketing of forest products – a case study in Europe
%A Kärnä, Jari
%A Hansen, Eric
%A Juslin, Heikki
%D 2003
%J Silva Fennica
%V 37
%N 2
%R doi:10.14214/sf.505
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/505
%X Forest industries and their industrial customers from four European  countries were surveyed by interviews to study the environmental  emphasis and the role of timber certification in their marketing  planning. Most of the Finnish, Swedish, German and British companies  have begun to integrate environmental issues in their strategic,  structural and functional level marketing decisions. They see forest  certification as a necessary tool for marketing forest products. The  level of environmental activity (greenness) of the companies was studied  by creating a one dimensional factor score rating. The logic of  marketing planning was tested by using one functional level marketing  tool – forest certification – as an example to examine how well the  level of greenness explains the importance of forest certification for  the company. The results show that in the surveyed companies the level  of greenness has more explanatory power than background factors such as  country or industry sector. The integration of environmental issues into  marketing planning and the interest in forest certification by these  companies can provide meaningful insights for the forest industries  worldwide as they confront similar issues.