Citizens Call for Home Depot Boycott
6/14/99
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Title: Citizens Environment Alliance calls for Home Depot Boycott
Source: Citizens Environment Alliance
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: June 14, 1999
NEWS RELEASE
Monday: June 14, 1999 for immediate release WINDSOR- The Citizens
Environment Alliance of SW Ontario is calling for a boycott of Home
Depot store in Windsor (joining boycotts of Home Depots across North
America).
Home Depot is the world's largest retailer of ancient forest products.
Home Depot is selling timber from Canada's rainforests across North
America; and Home Depot is refusing to tell its customers where the
timber originates from. After years of trying to reason with the
company, environmentalists have made little progress. The only thing
left is for Home Depot to listen to a boycott.
Home Depots across Canada sell cedar logged by Interfor, the largest
logging company in Canada's Great Bear Rainforest. Home Depot is also
selling wood from ancient forests in the Amazon, Southeast Asia and
California's Redwood Forest. In 1997 Home Depot pledged in writing to
eliminate use of any lumber, decking, fencing trellises or any other
products from ancient rainforests. However, in March of 1999 a Home
Depot spokesperson stated that,"(Home Depot) does not intend to
develop a policy, and never will."
We are demanding that Home Depot:
* Immediately remove ancient forest products from the shelves of their
stores which have already been identified as derived from the most
endangered forests such as Canada's Great Bear Forest and other
rainforests from around the world.;
* Complete a thorough audit of all forest products in its stores, and
remove endangered forest products as they are found.
* Commit to a timeline to phase out all ancient forest products and a
timeline to phase in independently-certified wood products derived
from secondary-growth forests as well as products derived from
ecologically sound non-wood products.
80% of the world's ancient forests have already been lost, and logging
is the number one threat to the last remaining 20%. Home Depot has
consistently promised and then broke promises to do something about
this critical issue.
Activists across Canada and the United States are campaigning to tell
Home Depot customers what Home Depot is selling and what they should
do about it. If the public will not buy these ancient forest products
from Home Depot then Home Depot and its logging suppliers will have to
change or disappear.
The Citizens' Environment Alliance boycott is being supported by the
Windsor & District Labour Council. This action is being taken in
conjunction with the Forest Action Network, with offices in Bella
Coola, B.C. and Vancouver, and a network of grassroots activists
across Canada.
For further information contact:
Rick Coronado CEA 519-973-1116
Forest Action Network: 250-799-5800
Windsor & District Labour Council Gary Parent 519-252-8281