Towards Corporate Sustainability under Global Agenda 2030 : Insights from Brazilian Forest Companies

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What are the implications of the bioeconomy for forest-related jobs?

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The European pulp and paper industry in transition to a bio-economy : A Delphi study

The current challenge facing the European pulp and paper industry is how to materialize the transformation to a bio-economy, as well as to realize the necessary new green innovations. The risks, costs and constraints of doing business will increase, thereby further intensifying competition, but at the same time new business opportunities will open up. This study adopts a three-round dissensus-based Delphi approach in order to explore our key research question of how the pulp and paper industry may change strategically, and what is the potential for value creation in the year 2030. According to our expert panel, the main drivers of competitiveness in 2030 will include energy and material efficiency, sustainability, as well as new innovations in products to serve customer needs better. According to the projected 2030 scenario, the pulp and paper industry will produce more diversified products, focus on higher value-added, and aim at consumer segments with higher environmental awareness. On average, 40 percent of the turnover will according to the panel come froth genuinely new products. Strategic cross-sectorial partnerships will have a key role in making this big leap, while simultaneously acknowledging the changing needs of sustainability-conscious customers and other stakeholders. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Sustainability driven new business models in wood construction towards 2030

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Forest Company Dependencies and Impacts on Ecosystem Services : Expert Perceptions from China

Global awareness of sustainability issues is growing rapidly, and business organizations are called to address wider social and environmental concerns along with economic performance. However, limited systematic knowledge exists on the interactions between forest industries and natural ecosystems. We thus investigated the role of ecosystem services in the context of China's forest sector. A qualitative research approach was used to elicit company external expert viewpoints on the topic. Our analysis focused on three themes: (1) forest company dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services; (2) business risks arising from dependencies and impacts; and (3) risk response strategies. The interviewed 20 experts identified a series of forest company dependencies and impacts (including negative and positive impacts) on several ecosystem services. The extent of dependencies and impacts is largely influenced by the business portfolio of the company. The perceived business risks include intense competition and the consequently increasing price for natural resources, which would affect forest company business plans, costs and outputs. The suggested strategies for turning risks into opportunities include outsourcing wood, changing production focus, promoting industrial upgrading and implementing regular assessments of corporate dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services. The findings of our study can guide companies' decision-making in managing forest ecosystems sustainably.Peer reviewe

What makes a European forest-based bioeconomy competitive?

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Monetary valuation of forest ecosystem services in China : A literature review and identification of future research needs

We propose a review of empirical studies dealing with the monetary valuation of forest ecosystem services in China. The analysis focuses on: assessing methodological differences between studies; highlighting the variation of monetary values across different ecosystem service types; and identifying and discussing future research needs. Based on a systematic search, our data set consists of 12 studies published in peer-reviewed journals in English, dealing with 72 forest ecosystem services. Our results suggest that domestic literature is affected by elusive categorization of ecosystem services and methodological inconsistencies. The wide variation in monetary values of Chinese forest ecosystem services, a phenomenon also observed in global level reviews, can be partially explained by the methodological heterogeneity of the studies. Future research could benefit from a strengthened and more standardized methodological approach, drawing from relevant methods and indicators employed in the reviewed domestic articles, as well as from insights and solutions proposed in the international empirical and conceptual literature. The exceptional forest restoration policy landscape coupled with the increasing establishment of commercial plantations offer important research opportunities for monetary valuation in China. Efforts should be directed towards assessing marginal values of ecosystem services in land-use changes over time, and benefit flows among different stakeholders.Peer reviewe

Forest Certification and Country of Origin : Choice Experiment Analysis of Outdoor Decking Material Selection in E-Commerce Market in Finland

Since the early 1990s, there has been hope that the uptake of certified forest products would ensure more sustainable forest management and also deliver business benefits along the value chain. Our study applies a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to model an e-commerce purchase in the case of multiple products with various attribute and certification combinations in the Finnish retail outdoor decking material market. We received 2772 responses from 231 participants in an online survey. Applying conditional logit and latent class models, we were able to assess the relative importance of attributes, identify various consumer segments, and simulate various scenarios for communicating the certification and origin of forest products and competing materials. Our results show that the most important attribute for consumer decision-making was the outdoor decking material followed by price, origin, and certification. Some consumer segments showed a habit of only choosing certain materials or domestic products, while paying less attention to other product attributes. Simulations for an e-commerce purchase situation also implied that communications concerning intangible product attributes, such as domestic origin and environmental certifications, could be used in the brand building of the forest sector to gain competitive advantage and increased market shares over other sectors. The results suggest that the conventional and constantly developing e-commerce marketing tools should be harnessed also in forest product and more general environmental marketing.Peer reviewe

Internal and external factors of competitiveness shaping the future of wooden multistory construction in Finland and Sweden

In transitioning to a renewable material-based bio economy, growing public and industry interest is apparent for using wooden multistory construction (WMC) as a sustainable urban housing solution in Europe, but its business implications are not well understood. In our study, we evaluate, which internal and external factors of competitiveness are shaping the future of WMC, especially in the context of Finland and Sweden. Based on a multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions, we conducted a three-stage dissensus-based Delphi study. The identified internal and external factors affecting the future competitiveness of the WMC business emphasize the importance of skilled architects and builders and the role of standardized building systems. Based on our results, the key aspects influencing the future competitiveness of WMC in the region are related to the development of technical infrastructure and project-based business networks, while additional changes in regulatory framework are perceived as less important. We conclude that towards 2030, the strong cognitive rules founded in the concrete-based building culture in these countries is likely to inhibit the dynamics of the socio-technical regime level. A change is also needed in the WMC business culture towards more open cross-sectoral collaboration and new business networks between different-sized players.Peer reviewe

Exploring the future use of forests : perceptions from non-industrial private forest owners in Finland

The transformation of the forest sector toward a bioeconomy calls for finding new sources of competitive advantage for the whole sector to retain its future viability. Non-industrial private forest owners are an important group of actors in the Finnish forest-based sector, as they supply 80% of industrial roundwood and control numerous other tangible and intangible forest-based ecosystem services. Our study analyzes forest owner views on the future use of forests in Finland, their perceptions on the evolving sectorial interlinkages and the position of the forest sector now and in the future bioeconomy. The data were collected in two phases: through telephone interviews of forest owners (n=278) and four focus group (FG) discussions (n=17), and were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The interviews showed that forest owners consider the highest potential for strengthening the sector toward bioeconomy to come from collaboration with energy and construction businesses. During the FG phase, we identified new possibilities founded on forest-based recreational services, cooperation with nature-based tourism and in increasing value-added wood products. In total, forest owners as a high-involvement group emphasized future value creation to be based upon forest ecosystem services and in diversifying the utilization of forests beyond the dominant raw material-driven mindset.Peer reviewe