Экономические науки/ 10. Экономика предприятия

Nalyvayko Nataliya Jroslavivna

Assistant of the Department of Business economics National Forestry and Wood Technology University of Ukraine,

Ukraine, Lviv

Production of the certified products by woodworking and cabinet-making enterprises of the Carpathian region of Ukraine

At present, there is little doubt that paramount human needs are: clean air for breathing, clean water for drinking, uncontaminated food and consumer goods. We can speak about emergence of interest to green products only when people understand the need for relocation out of industrial zones, need for establishment of water treatment systems, need to refuse the consumption of cheap products that may contain preservatives or pesticides residues. And only when people have the means to pursue their interests, there is a relevant demand for green goods and services. This can happen only subject to two conditions: either people become richer and have more money, or they partially give up other their needs in favor for the green ones. In order make the society green, both conditions should be provided.

Deterrent factor in production of environmentally friendly products in Ukraine is the absence of the formed category of environmentally conscious consumers, who through demand could affect the producers, pushing them to voluntary environmental certification. Unfortunately, today, more attention is paid to economic indicators (such as, for example, products price and availability) and environmental indicators are ignored or very slightly considered. This means that the consumer primarily cares about his economic well-being, almost without thinking about the potential environmental impacts. Consumer starts to pay attention to environmental attributes only at environmental problems aggravation and under the influence of information and media.       

Targeted management of production greening can be an important driving force for innovation and investment processes in industrial enterprises. Most enterprises of woodworking and cabinet-making industry of the Carpathian region of Ukraine (CRU) are unattractive for consumers because of inconsistency between price and quality. Its production is characterized by high energy and materials consumption, which cause unreasonable price increase. In addition, there is a negative impact resulting from equipment deterioration factors, obsolete production technologies and small usage of resource efficient, particularly – energy efficient, equipment. Taking into account energy prices increase, industry enterprises need an urgent upgrade of the machinery, equipment and production technologies, introducing an energy-efficient mode, as well as to comply with environmental regulations and to intensify the production of innovative products.

Professor I.M. Synyakevych [1] states that environmental product certification is a procedure that confirms the compliance of manufactured products to the environmental standards. Products subject to environmental certification are called “green” or “environmentally friendly” because during consumption or use they do not cause harm to consumers and environment. Such products are marked with a special label. After the environmental certification, manufacturer receives a certificate confirming products compliance to the environmental requirements.

Environmental certification of products can be both voluntary and compulsory. As a tool of company’s environmental policy, it allows to achieve the following positive results:

• consumers receive information on the availability of environmentally friendly products;

• increase of the share of environmentally certified products leads to reduction in environmental pollution and public health improving;

• increased market competition for production of environmentally friendly and ecologically safe products promotes the development of environmental management.

However, there are some environmental and economic features of environmental certification, that we should keep in mind, namely:

• manufacturers spend extra money for environmental certification, which leads to the product’s price increase;

• according to many scientists, voluntary environmental certification procedure takes precedence over the compulsory one;

• environmental product certification is improving and developing dynamically.

It should also be noted that the production of environmentally friendly products by woodworking and cabinet-making enterprises of CRU is associated with some risk, that is that certain consumers category are not able to buy it at the proposed price. Therefore, production and marketing costs payback period will definitely increase. In addition, there are a number of obstacles that industry manufacturers face with the production of such products, as it obliges them to bring raw materials natural qualities to the fullest extent at all stages of production.   

Having surveyed woodworking and cabinet-making enterprises of the CRU on the prospects of the certified products production, we have received rather positive result. Whereas 77.8% of cabinet-making and 56.3% woodworking enterprises answered, they are ready to produce the certified products. Up to 44% of woodworking and 66.7% of cabinet-making enterprises received consumer inquiries about their wish to purchase such products (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Prospects for production of the certified products by woodworking and cabinet-making enterprises of the CRU   

Note: it is formed by the author on the basis of the conducted research

    From the Fig. 1 it follows that a reasonable share of industrial enterprises are ready to produce certified products, despite the fact that most of them will have to improve their technical process by replacing existing equipment with the modern one.

During the implementation of environmental certification is important to find out: who is responsible for its implementation and who is to pay for the procedure. Experience of the industry enterprises, which passed the environmental certification, shows, that enterprises can get certified both for their own and for the sponsors’ expense. Powerful woodworking and cabinet-making enterprises are able to pay for the certification procedure, understanding, that it will open up new market opportunities for them.

At the same time, for small and medium enterprises of the CRU, whose share is about 40%, there are possible opportunities for certification procedures funding: foreign or domestic sponsors’ support, including individuals and legal entities, international funds, grants, etc. Typically, woodworking and cabinet-making enterprises that are interested in getting the certificate can pay for the procedure more quickly. According to this option, enterprises do not bear direct costs of the certification, but they fall into a certain dependence on the organization having provided the funds. This can occur, for example, as a restriction to the certificate, so that the enterprise is entitled to sell products only to the company, which has sponsored the certification, and which also may solely set prices for the certified products. In this case, manufacturers may treat certification procedure with less responsibly, because they do not spend money for its implementation.

We believe that in such a situation, state should become the guarantor of products certification at the industry enterprises. That is the state, who should take over some costs that woodworking and cabinet-making enterprises can bear in the course of certification. Especially it is applied to small enterprises of the CRU, as such enterprises can not perform this procedure due to lack of financial resources.

Literature:

1. Синякевич І.М. Інструменти екополітики: теорія і практика / І.М. Синякевич. – Львів: ЗУКЦ, 2003. – 188 с.

2. Екологізація лісокористування в контексті подолання глобальних екологічних загроз / за наук. ред. д-ра екон. наук, проф.. І.М. Синякевича. – Л.: Камула, 2014. – 592 с.