Analysing the consumer purchasing behaviour for certified wood products in Italy

Sustainable or ethical consumption increases over time and involves a growing variety of products. In this research we focus on consumption of wood products with Sustainable Forestry Management certification in Italy considering two specific labels: Forest Stewardship Council and Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. We test the role of several attitudinal characteristic of Italian consumers on their purchasing intention with a structural equation model. We consider both direct and indirect impact of ecolabel knowledge, general environmental attitude, attitude toward environmental certification, trust in certification. The results show that all the attitudinal constructs of our model play a significant role in affecting the willingness to pay a premium price for certified wood products. This suggests that firms, policymakers, certifying organizations and all the stakeholders involved in the forestry supply chain can successfully implement targeted information campaigns on ecolabels and environmental issues to increase sustainable consumption. These strategies would also improve trust in ecolabels. •We analyse consumption behaviour of wood products with FSC or PEFC certifications.•We focus on Italian consumers' purchasing intention for certified wood products.•We base our analysis on the Theory of Reasoned Action model.•We apply SEM to compute the role of personal characteristics on intentions to buy.•All the predictors of our model play a role in affecting purchasing intentions.