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What drives the industry to become "greener"?

Since late 1990s, the Chinese forest products industry has seen a heightened awareness of the environment. This process is characterized by 3 stages of development:

Stage 1 - Skepticism and Hesitant Engagement At the very early stage (between late 1990s and early 2000s) of this process, industry's response to international environmental NGOs' campaigns and global environmental standards such as FSC was skeptical and most companies were hesitant to engage in;

Stage 2 - Capacity Building This is where we are now.. with new international trade policies in place, environmental concepts are increasingly accepted by industry, notable, by those multinational firms such as IKEA and Wal-Mart which have developed strong corporate social responsibility policies, industry's demand for forest certification are growing rapidly. At this stage, both government and forest certification standards organizations are working to develop localized standards to address Chinese forests conditions and legality issues. Capability building (e.g., auditor training and education) is the current focus of these organizations. Although it remains to be seen whether or not mutual recognition can be reached among these schemes.

Stage 3 - Collective Action Industry's green future will depend on a collective action by governments, NGOs, global environmental standards, private sectors and consumers - a "hybrid model" as Mr. Joshua Wickerham described in his presentation at ISEAL Alliance Conference in London earlier this year.