This article presents a Finnish social design study that focuses on consumer perspectives and future expectations related to bio-based products and brands. The qualitative regional study addresses the global concern associated with sustainability of the bioeconomy. Because a gap in research was identified from the regional consumer perspective, the article presents a case study that was held with 50 consumers in Finland. The main research method was qualitative online focus group discussions, with an objective to gain an understanding of consumer behavior, motivations, concerns, and intentions related to bio-based products and brands. The results are presented according to the sustainability framework, which was constructed around four topics: (1) consumer awareness, (2) illustrated examples and their consumer acceptance, (3) consumption habits, and (4) future consumption behavior. The main findings indicate that Finnish consumers were extremely well-informed on the bio-based concept, and they trusted domestic regional brands the most. Throughout the research, Nordic consumers highlighted the role of companies and urged sensible science-based communication on the sustainability aspects. Finally, the results led to consider how the value-sensitive consumer insights may be utilized by proposing prominent impact assessment methods for decision-making in both the business and consumer sectors.

Wood is a widely used indoor material, and thus it is important to consider wood performance in microbial cross contamination via surfaces. In this study, both untreated and surface- treated wood materials were studied by simulating airborne bacterial contamination and evaluating the number of bacterial colonies on the material surfaces. The materials studied were untreated pine heartwood and sapwood, spruce, silver birch, and glass as a reference. The intensity of UV-excited fluorescence was measured to find the most antibacterial Scots pine heartwood. The coatings used were varnish and wax for Scots pine sapwood. The surface roughness of all material types was compared, and it was found to be uniform. All untreated wood surfaces had less viable bacterial colonies at all time points compared to the glass reference, and the surface treated samples did not differ from the glass reference indicating that the antibacterial properties of wood were blocked by both varnish and wax. The fluorescence method was practical to use, but wider testing will be needed to validate it more thoroughly. The results indicate also that silver birch has similar antibacterial properties as pine and spruce and hence should be studied further.

As regulation starts to introduce carbon emission limit values for new buildings, the importance of variations between the as-designed and the as-built building increases when aiming for actual decrease of emissions. This study quantitatively evaluates possible emissions variations between high-, average-, and low-carbon product alternatives in the Finnish context and finds that the difference between average products and high carbon product alternatives may reach up to 30% of the buildings A1-A3 emissions. On the other hand, there is similarly about 20% possibility to decrease emissions when using low carbon product alternatives compared to average products. The study also reveals a significant emissions variation potential for modules A4 and A5, implying that is worthwhile to carefully plan transportation and site operations to limit emissions. Combined, these findings suggest that as-designed carbon calculations for new buildings that are below the legal carbon limit values, might in practice be above the limit value post-construction due to unfavourable final material choices and site operation methods. Therefore, it is recommended to enhance the data collection and visibility to be able to steer the final carbon footprint of the building and that emissions safety margins are applied when designing new buildings.