Ýêîíîìè÷åñêèå íàóêè/ 10. Ýêîíîìèêà ïðåäïðèÿòèÿ
Nalivayko 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 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 furniture 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 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 furniture enterprises of the CRU on the prospects of the certified
products production, we have received rather positive result. Whereas 77.8% of
furniture and 56.3% woodworking
enterprises answered, they are ready to produce the certified products. Up to
44% of woodworking and 66.7% of furniture
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 furniture 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 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
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. Ñèíÿêåâè÷ ².Ì. ²íñòðóìåíòè åêîïîë³òèêè: òåîð³ÿ ³ ïðàêòèêà / ².Ì. Ñèíÿêåâè÷. – Ëüâ³â: ÇÓÊÖ, 2003. – 188 ñ.