Participation in a wood-fuel quality assurance scheme in Ireland.

Abstract

Wood for energy is a growing market in Ireland. However, there is some concern about the quality of the available wood-fuel. Good quality wood-fuel is essential to ensure the sustainability of a supplier’s enterprise; otherwise consumer confidence may be eroded. Thirdparty certification schemes can contribute to distinguishing higher quality wood-fuels from lower quality equivalents available on the market. To date however, there have been no studies that have investigated barriers to the uptake of certification schemes. The objectives of this study were to investigate factors that may affect operational efficiency for the production of quality firewood and woodchip and to identify potential barriers to the uptake of energy-product certification schemes. To this end, data were gathered from questionnaire surveys of firewood and woodchip suppliers, including those with and without third-party certification to investigate aspects of their general business environment and quality management systems. The results indicated that all suppliers had adopted quality management systems in response to customer requirements. Barriers to uptake into the certification schemes were found to be attitudinal. This was based on non-certified suppliers’ general perceptions that the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance certification scheme offered no incentives that would be considered sufficiently advantageous to their business to warrant such investment.