Business value of the FSC brand
A market survey presented at the Forest Conference shows that almost 75% of the respondents find that FSC certification brings business value to the company. Less that 6% find that it bring them no business value.
FSC General Assembly report
Among the benefits of certification, it is notable that getting access to new markets (65%), access to new clients (74%) and increased sales to existing clients (81%) all have high rankings.
On the less impressive side, only slightly more than 20% are receiving a price premium for their certified products. Most companies are able to find the FSC supply they need (60%) but almost 30% are experiencing problems finding enough certified material.
Send more money
A debate on how to channel more funds into the FSC system was also raised. Scott Poynton from the Tropical Forest Trust pointed out that “the only way to get more money is to deliver a better service. If we don’t define how to do that, we will just continue to get push backs from the certificate holders”.
Among the key note speakers, Lewis Fix from Domtar stressed that gaps in consumer recognition remain. While this is undoubtedly true, he also introduced a new expression: “FSC Stickiness”, which indicates that once FSC has been introduced among end consumers the label tends to stay on the market.
