Willingness to pay for environmentally certified wood products: A consumer perspective

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-1997

Abstract

A study was conducted in the spring of 1995 to: 1) determine the willingness of U.S. consumers to pay a price premium for environmentally certified wood products over a range of consumer products; 2) determine the size of the consumer segments for these products; and 3) profile these segments. Frequencies and mean responses were used to analyze the willingness to pay data. A cluster analysis performed on nine measures of wood products certification suggests the existence of five relatively homogeneous segments of consumers. Results indicated that consumer willingness to incur a price premium for certified wood products varied depending on the item considered, with a range from 4.4 to 18.7 percent. However, an average of 37 percent of consumers, across the range of products considered, were not willing to incur a premium for any type of environmentally certified wood product. This paper identifies one consumer segment of approximately 16.5 million Americans who would most likely seek out and buy environmentally certified wood products at a price premium. They can be described, relative to other study respondents, as politically liberal, a member of both the Democratic Party and an environmental organization, and most likely, female.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Forest Products Journal

First Page

39

Last Page

48

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