Finnish young adults’ perceptions of the health, well-being and sustainability of wooden interior materials

Wood as a renewable construction material presents positive human health, well-being and sustainability-related features. Several studies have indicated its lower carbon footprint compared to the main alternative construction materials and its physiological and psychological characteristics have positive impacts on human health. The objective of this study is to investigate how young adults perceive the health, well-being and sustainability impacts of wooden interior materials. The findings from the four focus groups indicate that generally the image of wooden materials is positive although some concerns were identified. Further, wood as an interior material is perceived to have mainly positive psychological impacts on human health and well-being. From a sustainability perspective, participants recognized both negative and positive impacts of wooden materials mainly relating to environmental sustainability. Findings also revealed that although participants appreciate health and sustainability in the contexts of housing and particularly interior materials, still the materials' appearance and the financial situation of young participants' households dictate their criteria for choosing housing. The study results suggest that positive health impacts of wood, as well as its broader sustainability impacts, should be better acknowledged and promoted more broadly in society. This could result in greater appreciation towards wood and wooden materials among consumers.Peer reviewe

Metsien hiilensidonta, metsätalouden vesistökuormitus ja monimuotoisuus : tukimahdollisuuksia metsänomistajalle

Metsä toimii kasvaessaan tehokkaana hiilinieluna ja sitoo merkittävän osan Suomen kasvihuonekaasupäästöistä. Ilmakehässä olevan hiilidioksidin sitoutuminen metsiin on suoraan suhteessa metsien kasvuun. Metsänomistajalle hiilensidonta ja monimuotoisuuden suojelu markkinaehtoisesti voivat olla tapa laajentaa ansaintamahdollisuuksia omasta metsästään. Tähän esitteeseen on koottu tämän hetken yleistietoa metsien hiilensidontaan ja päästövähennyksiin liittyvistä mahdollisuuksista sekä aiheeseen liittyvistä metsätalouden tuista. Mukana on myös tietoa ja linkkejä ekologisen kompensaation mahdollisuuksista ja mm. hiilikaupan keskeisistä käsitteistä

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

Puruveden metsät : Taustatietoa monitavoitteiseen metsienhoitoon

Puruvesi on tunnettu niin kansallisesti kuin paikallisesti vesistön erinomaisesta laadusta. Merkittävien luontoarvojensa vuoksi yli 77 % Puruvedestä kuuluu Natura 2000-ohjelmaan. Puruveden laatua ja sen virkistyskäyttöarvoa halutaan vaalia myös tulevaisuudessa. Valuma-alueesta suurin osa, 79 % on metsämaata. Metsien käytöllä on siten suuri vaikutus Puruveden tilaan. Ilmaston muuttuessa metsien käyttöön ja metsistä tulevaan hajakuormitukseen on odotettavissa muutoksia. Tähän julkaisuun on koottu tietoa siitä, miten metsien käyttö vaikuttaa vesistön tilaan ja millaisilla keinoilla metsätalouden vesistökuormitusta voidaan vähentää sekä edistää hiilensidontaa ja monimuotoisuutta. Julkaisu on toteutettu osana HIILIPOLKU -hanketta

Finnish forest owner objectives as indicators for a diversifying use of forests on the road to a bioeconomy

Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners are important forest ecosystem service providers and users. Along with the structural and general lifestyle changes of owners, their forest ownership objectives have become more diverse, strongly emphasizing intangible forest values alongside timber production. Therefore, NIPF owners and their versatile forest ownership objectives are a potential source of information for exploring the untapped future potential that could help the forest sector to retain its future viability on the road towards a bioeconomy. This doctoral thesis aims to understand the drivers of demand for new forestry services and forest-based business opportunities from the perspective of NIPF owner objectives and forest meanings. Objectives and forest meanings are examined from methodological, sociodemographic and NIPF owner sustainable lifestyle perspectives, leading to more general examination of NIPF owner perceptions of future utilization prospects of forests and the forest sector. Thus, the objective of the thesis is to build a more in-depth understanding of NIPF owner objectives and to examine how this information could be used in the development and marketing of forestry services and other forest-related products and services. The findings present a way to systematically analyse the objectives of forest ownership and also illustrate how certain segments of forest owners value aesthetics and biodiversity conservation over a traditional monetary value orientation. The results also indicate that the owners with the highest sustainable consumption orientation place a greater emphasis on multiple benefits of forests than owners who have a lower such orientation. The findings show that the future value creation of forests will be based on multiple aspects, and the widening of perspective beyond raw material dominance in the utilization of forests is important. Thus, recognizing customer pressure towards more diversified forestry services would be essential in meeting the versatile needs of forest owners but also from the perspective of developing new forest-based businesses

A Review of the Concepts and Measurements for Connection to Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behaviour—a Call for Research on Human-Forest Relationships

Purpose of Review The review examines recent scientific discussion on the concepts and measurements of human connection to nature (CTN) and pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). In addition to that, we explore the environmental contexts in which study populations are exposed to nature or nature experiences, particularly the contexts in which forests emerge from these studies, and lastly outline gaps in research. Recent Findings Outlining the association between CTN and PEB has been widely researched over the past 5 years. The concepts and measurements referring to these terms vary, but a few commonly used concepts were identified. The review classifies the approaches used for exploring the relationship between CTN and PEB into four categories. The review indicates that the interconnection between CTN and PEB is mostly studied as a part of the wider concept. Approximately half of the reviewed articles explored the actual exposure to some natural environment or nature activity either directly or indirectly. Forests only played a small role as a natural environment in the reviewed articles. Forests appear to be of very little weight or under-represented in CTN and PEB literature as an explicitly identified natural environment. Results also indicate that the human-forest relationship has not been defined precisely in empirically based scientific literature. The paper discusses implications for the future research focusing on emphasizing the role of forests as natural environments in the research of CTN and PEB.Peer reviewe

Branding Wooden Multi-storey Construction – Real-Estate Agents as Gatekeepers for Enhancing Consumer Value in Housing

Understanding of consumer value expectations in the Finnish multistorey construction (MSC) markets is limited. Even less information exists on branding in the MSC businesses. Real-estate agents are powerful actors in the housing markets through their intermediary role between construction sector businesses and home purchasers. Despite this, their perceptions on the consumer value expectations or branding possibilities in the MSC markets has not been previously addressed. In our pilot study, by employing data gathered from real-estate agents from Finland in 2018 (n = 65, response rate 14%) we address the following questions: Based on real-estate agents’ perceptions, what are the housing value expectations of consumers in the Finnish multi-storey housing markets? Are there branding possibilities in those markets? Could wood be a source for branding in the MSC businesses? The quantitative and qualitative analysis show that branding opportunities exist. However, branding requires enhancing differentiation above traditional product-service thinking, which currently dominates MSC businesses.©2022 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY–NC–ND 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Beliefs on environmental impact of wood construction

People have different beliefs about the environmental impact of forest products. This quantitative web-survey study investigated public beliefs in Finland and Sweden about the environmental and climate impacts of using wood as a construction material for multi-story buildings. It was conducted with consumer panels reflecting the average populations of the two countries. The study analyzed factors affecting beliefs that multi-story Wood Buildings: (1) contribute to mitigating global warming, and (2) adversely impact biodiversity and the climate. It used consumer panel and multivariate statistics. Favorable climate-related beliefs were associated with Finnish nationality, male gender, age, children in household, university degree, and beliefs that climate change is induced by humans and causes weather disasters. Beliefs that wood buildings drive global warming and harm biodiversity were associated with non-rural residence, female gender, young age, children in household, low income, and beliefs that climate change causes weather disasters. No associations were recorded for current residence types. These findings highlight the importance of the wood construction industry to improve, document, and communicate to the public its impact on climate and biodiversity. They also indicate how market information can be formulated and targeted to communicate an accurate environmental image of wood construction.</p