Identifying Green Consumer Trends in China

Increasing evidence has become available that domestic Chinese market may present good opportunities for “green” forest products. According to our recent survey, at least one-third of Chinese wood products manufacturers possess at least one type of third-party environmental certificate, led by ISO14000, China Environmental Labeling and FSC. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China has released its own “Evaluation Standard for Green Building”, and the State Forestry Administration will also soon release its national forest certification standards, which, while yet to have significant market impacts, suggest governmental growing support for green technologies and environmental standards. A recent study by Ogilvy & Mathershows that Chinese consumers are beginning to factor environmental concerns in their purchasing decisions, and are willing to pay a small premium for environmentally friendly products.

However, to realize the Chinese market’s true potential for “green” products, businesses must help consumers change their behavior by removing the hurdles between intentions and actions, and overcome the skepticism of green-washing. Forming an alliance with internationally acclaimed “brands”, such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance, may be one of these solutions. In this expert interview, we will learn how industry experts view green opportunities in China and strategies to tap growing Chinese consumers’ demand for environmental forest products.

Expert Interviewed:

Mr. Hongfan Li, President of China Wood International

Q: For those who are less familiar with your organization, please provide a short description of your organization and current activities in China (or Asia-Pacific region).

China Wood International (www.chinawood.org) is a media and consulting firm with a strong presence in the Chinese wood industry. Our magazine features international news, industry hot topics, in-depth reports, with a focus on global markets and timber trade. Our readers are mainly company senior managers in flooring, wood-based panel, furniture, wood door, equipment and accessories manufacturing and trading sectors, as well as others. This magazine also reaches dealers and designers depending on special topics. As a leading industry media, we are committed to promoting industry’s green practices in China. We work with WWF and encourage Chinese wood companies to join GFTN for green wood and sustainable development. In order to increase consumer’s knowledge of FSC certified product and to protect our forest resources, we consistently support FSC-related activities, including promotional campaigns and consumer education to increase Chinese consumer’s awareness of eco-labels and environmentally certified products through our media. We are working with WWF on a low carbon leader program for Chinese wood industry, in order to help more wood companies incorporate sustainable development concepts into business development through energy conservation and reducing emissions, as the industry moves up the value chain.  

Q: Where do you see “green” consumer trends in domestic Chinese market today, if any?

Green consumption trends are obviously increasing as environmental protection organizations and others are continuously promoting this conception. Consumers have started to pay attention to the green and environmental functions of products. Firstly, in the marketplace, consumers are increasingly concerned about healthy issues, for example, potential formaldehyde emissions. Secondly, as Chinese wood products exporters face strict environmental standards in foreign markets, many companies have made strategies to improve their raw material sourcing and manufacturing technologies in order to meet export market requirements. These products are also welcomed by Chinese consumers. For example, according to requirement of CPSIA, poisonous and harmful materials are forbidden for producing and making consumptive material. CARB-certified wood panels that comply with ODC is also an example. Overall, Chinese wood companies are steadily moving up the value chain to become higher end manufacturers, which is driving the industry to become “greener”. 

Q: What are major factors that drive these trends?

First of all, rising consumer environmental awareness is a strong driver of these green trends. Secondly, the pressure from green standards of foreign markets has impacted some exporting-oriented companies to improve their techniques to comply with these new requirements. Thirdly, as I mentioned earlier, Chinese wood industry is shifting to the higher end of the value chain, thereby offering tremendous opportunities for companies to pursue green business to capture a growing demand for environmentally friendly products.

Q: How do you compare Chinese market with the rest of the world, in terms of consumer’s green purchasing behavior?

In western (developed) countries, people normally have a high level of awareness of social responsibility issues as there are established systems and educational policies of training citizens to be socially responsible, supported by effective laws and regulations. But in China, although the economy is growing fast, there is still lack of training on social responsibility for citizens, green consumption behavior seems to be quite passive and aimless. Now in China, green consumption concept is largely limited to environmentally friendly and healthy products. Consumers don’t usually know what certified products and sustainable forests are. On the other side, green consumption in domestic Chinese market is spontaneous and lack of concerted efforts by industry, in some sense, consumer awareness of green consumption is still low, most companies and consumers don’t have much awareness of green concepts. Our market system, industry standards and policies need to be further improved to match with these green trends.  

Q: Can you share any successful examples of companies pursuing “green” marketing strategies in China?

I would like to give Nature Flooring as an example. As a national partner of China Green Foundation, Nature Flooring has carried out activities such as tree planting and greening which give an important impact to the society, more and more people are attracted to join in the greening and environmental activities, at the same time green image of Nature flooring’s brand is also increased, this is a win-win result for the company and society. The idea of “buying a piece of floor and plant a tree” are recognized by consumers, and make Nature flooring brand prominent in the flooring market where there are lots of brands. 

Q: Lastly, tell us about your organization’s future strategy to adapt to changing consumer preferences in China.

At present, we mainly use our media, consulting and conferences as a platform to help NGOs such as WWF-GFTN and call on companies to join sustainable development initiatives, as a way to improve industry’s awareness of green production. But we are still constrained by lack of expertise and fund supporting. So I would like to make an appeal to all interested organizations to participate in and support our activities. In the future, we will continue to work with NGOs and companies to train staff on the ground and establish sustainable supply chain; we will also work to educate consumers to buy green products, to buy certified wood products, to stop illegal timber from coming into the marketplace.

(END of this interview)