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The Home Depot
 
Rainforest Relief released a report entitled “Stealing Home: the Old Growth Rainforests of The Home Depot”, detailing 60 different products that HD was selling that were made of old growth wood, the wood of some 40 of which was being logged from tropical rainforests. The report was disseminated through campaign organizing and on RAN’s website to hundreds of activist groups around the US and internationally. Rainforest Relief, along with The Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve in New York City, organized numerous demonstrations targeting HD in the New York City area, two in Brooklyn, one in Queens and one in Secaucus, NJ. The first Brooklyn action involved three volunteers, Trilby McDonald, Therese Chorun and Daniel McGowan, locking themselves to a shelf full of lauan doors and another stack of doors, as well as 30 activists demonstrating in front of the store with puppets and signs. This action got national attention, along with others across the US, highlighted in a national Associated Press article. Along with Los Angeles-based Rainforest Action Project and Sonoma-based Living Jungle Alliance, Rainforest Relief organized the first ‘lock down’ action — that is, the first action where activists utilized civil disobedience as a tactic, raising the stakes. RAN had been in negotiations with HD for almost a year and had reached a loggerhead. The joint action, making use of the large number of activists in town for that year's Rainforest Action Chautauqua north of San Fransisco, was a huge success in numerous ways Three activists chained themselves to the shelving next to the lauan — a tropical hardwood — while 80 others protested outside the store. There was also an initial ‘dumping’ of a pile of HD’s old growth wood in front of the registers. We achieved our goals of getting lots of media attention and eventually our excellent police liaison, J.C. Callendar, was able to negotiate an unlocking without arrest. The action forced HD back to the table with RAN. During our campaign with Action Resource Center and Rainforest Information Centre in San Diego, Rainforest Relief director Tim Keating, took the other activists on a tour of the local HD store, showing them aisle-by-aisle what products were made from old growth, which of those were tropical rainforest woods, and of what species they were made. This became the “Dead Rainforest Tour”, a tactic that would be replicated around the country. At that time, HD was still publicly denying that they were selling any old growth wood. In addition to the Dead Rainforest Tour, Rainforest Relief made up a number of wood recognition kits to distribute to groups that were joining the campaign. The first action in New York City took place at the Brooklyn Home Depot and involved three volunteers, Trilby McDonald, Therese Chorun and Daniel McGowan, locking themselves to a shelf full of lauan doors and another stack of doors, as well as 30 activists demonstrating in front of the store with puppets and signs. It was at Rainforest Relief’s/Wetlands’ Queens demonstration that we utilized our Dead Rainforest Tour, taking a local reporter into the store, aisle by aisle, showing him each of the old-growth and rainforest wood products (followed around, of course, by two HD staff). Armed with our information, he was able to buttonhole HD’s Public Relations VP, Suzanne Apple, who, for the first time, had to admit that lauan was old-growth — the first public admission that HD was, in fact, selling old-growth woods. All of our work combined to infuse the international campaign with the reality that HD’s old-growth wood was largely cut from rainforests, even though the main thrust of the major groups had been about British Columbia’s forests. In August of 1999, after two years of demonstrations that involved over 600 actions, HD finally announced that they would phase out all wood from “endangered forests” by the “end of 2002”, specifically mentioning lauan and tool handles — the two main targets of Rainforest Relief’s campaigning. RR continues to work on implementation by HD and Lowe’s, who followed HD’s announcement with one of their own. At this point, HD has phased in some certified products; some recycled plastic lumber, and phased out some lauan-faced doors (replaced by a man-made alternative). In fact, the pressure from HD prompted Premdor, the world’s largest door manufacturer, based in Canada and HD’s largest supplier of doors, to seek an alternative to the lauan-faced doors that were their mainstay. Premdor decided the most efficient way for them to make the alternative doors was to buy Masonite, the company that made the alternative facing material, called “hardboard”. They purchased Masonite (the company) and changed the name of the whole corporation (Premdor included) to Masonite International. They also sought and received FSC certification for the resulting alternative doors. A direct outcome of our targeting of lauan doors, the transformation of Premdor was a huge step in the right direction, committing the company (and HD, Lowe’s and other DIYs that buy from them) to the manufacture of non-lauan doors far into the future. There have been a few other changes in HD’s purchasing but nowhere near the completion of the commitment they made in 1999. Discussions have been underway among groups as to how to proceed since The Home Depot and Lowe’s failed to meet their commitments by the end of 2002. In fact, since then, The Home Depot has begun selling flooring made of old growth tropical woods such as kapur and mahogany and continues to carry tools and wheelbarrows with handles made from old-growth tropical hardwoods. Help us hold these companies' feet to the fire and compel them to live up to the commitments they made in 1999 and 2000, to end all sales of wood from endangered forests. Contact us today. Please help us keep the victories coming by donating to Rainforest Relief today. 
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 Copyright 2008 Rainforest Relief |
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