ACTION
ALERT
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Home
Depot Victory to Ignite an Industry Chain Reaction
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Forest
Networking a Project of forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
9/25/99
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
Lend
your good works to the effort to make certified timber from ecologically
sustainable
forests the industry norm. Following
are some ideas from Rainforest
Action
Network to leverage the Home Depot pledge to eventually buy only
certified
timber products. Raping forests for
convenience items is no longer
considered
acceptable--and if you do, we're coming to get you!
g.b.
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Title: Home Depot Victory to Ignite an Industry
Chain Reaction! Urgent Action
Alert!
Source: Rainforest Action Network,
http://www.ran.org/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: September 14, 1999
URGENT
ACTION ALERT! International Day of Action to Transform the Home
Improvement
Industry! Grassroots pressure urgently needed! HELP SAVE OLD GROWTH
FORESTS
ON OCTOBER 26TH!
Home
Depot, the behemoth of the U.S. home improvement industry, has publicly
committed
to phasing out wood from "endangered areas"! Lowe's Companies has
made
public
statements and is in the process of signing a corporate letter of intent
to
phase out old growth wood.
WE NOW
HAVE A HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY TO DEMAND THAT THE ENTIRE RETAIL WOOD
INDUSTRY
GOES OLD GROWTH FREE! Home Depot claims to sell 10% of the world's wood
products,
and they control 40% of the U.S. home improvement industry.
If we
get the rest of the industry to meet or beat Home Depot's plan of action,
then we
have an unprecedented chance to force MORE THAN 20% OF THE WORLD'S
TIMBER
SALES TO BE OLD GROWTH FREE!
For the
fall of 1999 we have 2 objectives: 1) transform
the home improvement
industry;
and 2) secure Home Depot's compliance with its own publicly announced
standard.
WHO'S
NEXT?
The
nine home improvement centers behind HD in gross annual sales have until
September
30 to 'meet or beat' HD's commitment to stop destroying forests.
It
appears that the following five home improvement chains will fail this test
and
will be vulnerable to pressure:
1)
HOMEBASE
3345
Michelson Drive
Irvine,
CA 92612-0650
714 442
5000
fax 714
442 5102
WEBSITE: http://www.homebase.com
CEO: Allan P. Sherman
Region:
Pacific coast
This is
the chain that is most like the industry leaders Home Depot and Lowe 's
with
huge warehouse stores; HomeBase has an "emphasis on interior fashion and
d‚cor."
2)
MENARD'S INC.
4777
Menard Drive
Eau
Claire, WI 54703
715 876
2577
fax 715
876 5010
WEBSITE: none.
CEO:
still looking....
REGION:
upper Midwest, focusing on the north, with stores in WI, MN, ND, SD, NE,
IA, IL,
IN, MI.
"For
over 37 years, Menards has been a leading home center retailer in
'America's
Heartland'..."
3)
PAYLESS CASHWAYS, INC.
2300
Main Street
Kansas
City, MO 64141-0466
816 234
6000
fax 816
234 6425
WEBSITE: http://www.payless.cashways.com CEO: Millard E. Barron
REGION:
Great plains into the 4 corners states; aka Furrow in Oregon, Texas, the
midwest
and beyond.
Also
operates as Furrow, Lumberjack, Hugh M. Woods, and Knox Lumber, claims to
be
"full-line building materials and lumberyard retailer."
4)
WICKES INC.
706 N.
Deerpath Drive
Vernon
Hills, IL 60061
847 367
3400
fax 847
367 3400
WEBSITE: http://www.wickes.com
CEO: J. Steven Wilson
REGION: Midwest through Northeast, specifically in
Maine, NH and Vermont
Wickes
is a mom and pop store that got huge, saying that "unlike main
competition
Home Depot, Lowe's and Menard's", they focus on contractors instead
of
do-it-yourselfers.
5) 84
LUMBER or
PO Box
8484 Route 519
Eighty-Four,
PA 15384 Eighty-Four, PA 15330 724
223 8400
fax 724
228 9457
WEBSITE: http://www.84lumber.com
President: Maggie Hardy Magerko
REGION: Eastern seaboard west to Colorado (but not
Maine, NH or Vermont)
84 is
another mom and pop store that got huge, but is still privately held.
Claims
to be nation's "largest privately-owned retail building materials
company." [Interesting note: founder Joe described by retail industry as
"excitable,
enthusiastic, and a grassroots promoter who knows what people want
and how
to provide it."]
INTERNATIONAL
DAY OF ACTION FOR OLD GROWTH FORESTS: OCTOBER 26, 1999.
Whatever
you had planned to do against Home Depot, do it against any or all of
the
Foolish Five. Rainforest Action Network will be preparing Action Tool Kits
including
flyers, fact sheets, product warning labels, and Old Growth Inspection
Lab
Coats for these stores. If you have another target in mind, that's great
too!
Keep us posted on your plans.
But
don't forget about Home Depot! Keep
pressuring them by meeting with store
managers
("I would like to see all those products you are phasing out because
they
destroy forests...")and flyering customers informing them of the products
that
Home Depot must remove. Another idea is to schedule a "check-up" DEAD
RAINFOREST
TOUR for the October 26 Day of Action. Rainforest Action Network will
be
preparing old growth compliance evaluations for Home Depot stores.
If you
need more information or help, contact Jennifer Krill, jkrill@ran.org,
Patrick
Reinsborough, rags@ran.org, or Aaron Jackson, ajackson@ran.org; or call
any or
all of us at RAN, 415-398-4404, 1-800-989-RAIN.
TOGETHER
we can get old growth forests off the shelves of the home improvement
industry!
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