Green Marketing. the Case of Greece in Certified and Sustainable Managed Timber Products 1

EuroMed Journal of Business, Vol 5, No 2 (accepted – in press)

Green Marketing. The case of Greece in certified and sustainable managed timber products 1

Ioannis Papadopoulos, Glykeria Karagouni, Marios Trigkas and Evanthia Platogianni Department of Wood & Furniture Design and Technology Technological & Educational Institute of Larissa, Greece Research Paper Keywords: Green Marketing, Timber Certification, Forest Sustainability, Marketing Planning, Timber Market, Marketing Research

Purpose The purpose of the present paper is to study the possibility of promoting certified timber coming from sustainable managed forests, in order to support Greek enterprises and the institutions of the Greek timber sector involved to apply effective green marketing methods and policies. Design / methodology/ approach Based on a prototype questionnaire, specifically structured for the aim of the research, 55 responses were collected from Greek timber enterprises on April 2009. The questionnaires were processed and analyzed with the statistical program SPSS of ver17.0, using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The main purpose was the investigation of knowledge, use and promotion of certified timber that emanates from forests under sustainable management, planning thus the green marketing. Findings The Greek enterprises of the timber sector expressed a great interest on the protection of forests all over the world, ranging from illegal loggings to their rational management. At the same time, in their overwhelming majority, they strongly support the certification of the sustainable management of Greek forests. These enterprises believe that the movement of green buildings reaches also Greece, with a slow however pace and forecast that green consumers are prone to offer an additional percentage of about 6% on price, in order to buy certified timber products. Companies trust at a high percent most Institutions of Higher Education (Universities and Technological...