The use of biofuels has proven to be fundamental in decreasing the impact of human activities on the environment and also in contributing to a more sustainable development. Wooden biomasses have historically been used for heating purposes and are still being used worldwide. The valorisation of wood products goes through certifications, in particular the ENplus certification guarantees quality and the FSC and PEFC certifications guarantee the origin of the products by forests managed according to the principles of sustainability.

The aim of the work is to identify which attributes consumers value most when purchasing forest products used for heating, such as pellets.

The paper sought to provide initial responses through an exploratory analysis carried out using a conjoint experiment based on linear assumptions and administering a questionnaire to pellet consumers in Italy, then cluster analysis using Ward's method has been applied.

The conjoint analysis shows that price is the attribute with the highest importance; sustainability certification is the second most relevant attribute. Finally, the quality attribute linked to the ENplus label is the lowest relative importance score in the model.

A cluster analysis was carried out on the individual utility pattern of respondents derived from the conjoint analysis to obtain a deeper understanding of the role of the assessed attributes and to find the relationship with socio-demographic characteristics. Three main groups were identified through clustering: “Price-sensitive purchasers”, Younger and sustainability-oriented purchasers”, “Quality-oriented purchasers”.

The findings provide insights that can be used by retailers to better market their products. Furthermore, policy implications can be extrapolated from the study. Indeed, the forest certifications examined do not seem to differ in terms of usefulness, highlighting that consumers may not have a thorough understanding of the message mediated by them.

事实证明，生物燃料的使用对于减少人类活动对环境的影响以及促进更可持续的发展至关重要。木质生物质在历史上一直用于加热目的，并且仍在世界范围内使用。木材产品的价值通过认证，特别是 ENplus 认证保证质量，FSC 和 PEFC 认证保证产品的来源是根据可持续原则管理的森林。

这项工作的目的是确定消费者在购买用于供暖的林产品（如颗粒）时最看重的属性。

本文试图通过使用基于线性假设的联合实验进行的探索性分析和对意大利颗粒消费者进行问卷调查来提供初步响应，然后应用了使用 Ward 方法的聚类分析。

联合分析表明，价格是最重要的属性；可持续性认证是第二个最相关的属性。最后，链接到 ENplus 标签的质量属性是模型中最低的相对重要性分数。

对从联合分析得出的受访者的个人效用模式进行聚类分析，以更深入地了解评估属性的作用，并找出与社会人口特征的关系。通过聚类确定了三个主要群体：“价格敏感的购买者”、年轻和可持续发展导向的购买者、“质量导向的购买者”。

这些发现提供了可供零售商用来更好地营销其产品的见解。此外，可以从研究中推断出政策含义。事实上，所审查的森林认证在有用性方面似乎没有什么不同，这凸显出消费者可能对它们所传递的信息没有透彻的理解。