Chemical modification of timber decking: looking to the future

To help avoid conflict and even market rejection, the design and introduction of new technologies can be aided by consideration of the potential concerns of different stakeholder groups. An assessment of their desired goals for technological change may be useful for pre-empting changes in the  parameters of acceptability for technologies. As part of a research  programme evaluating the parameters of acceptability for bio-based  technologies using life cycle assessment of products and an analysis of the  perceptual frameworks of stakeholders, respondents from four stakeholder  groups in New Zealand were interviewed about the desirable and  undesirable trajectories for chemical modification technologies. Three  examples of pine decking products derived using different amounts and  types of chemical modification served to help explore the contemporary  criteria and rationale for acceptability. The responses of the 70 respondents  in those four groups indicated that new technologies need to be able to  prove their worth with regard to both tangible and intangible qualities if they  are to be accepted into the market in the place of either the existing product  or an inorganic competitor.