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 of decades now. It is claimed that unsustainable forestry practices may damage biodiversity and the provision of forest ecosystem services, while wood is simultaneously perceived as a renewable material with a comparatively low carbon footprint. As is the case in other sectors, the role of the customer for fostering greener industry processes has also been highlighted, e.g. in forest certification. The development of even more environmentally friendly processes relates closely to how they are implemented and viewed among actors in the forest supply chain. The research on green practices in the wood industries has not been thoroughly collected and reviewed. An assessment of the present knowledge on the matter is needed to establish the state of the art and find approaches for future research efforts. This paper is an attempt to review and reflect upon the published business oriented research on green supply chains for wood products. The study is based on articles retrieved in relevant databases and we focus on how the literature has developed the main focus, approaches and main results. Many studies have investigated end-consumer preferences for eco-labeled wood products, mainly in North America and Europe, while fewer are oriented toward e.g. communication of green properties or business to business relations. The article provides an overview of problems that have been covered by research and identifies ‘white spots’ 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 topic area