The Home Depot, Attention: Customer Care
2455 Paces Ferry Road
Atlanta, GA 30339
800/553-3199 USA (8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST Monday through Friday)
800/668-2266 Canada (8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST Monday through Friday)
Phone: 770/433-8211
Fax: 770/431-2685

In 1991, Rainforest Action Network (RAN)began pressuring The Home Depot to end their sales of lauan plywood. Then-environmental affairs V.P., Mark Eisen began pushing the company towards adopting the sales of more certified woods and tested the use of an alternative-faced interior door.

However, Mr. Eisen left the company around 1994 and The Home Depot dropped any progress.

Rainforest Relief continued to educate about The Home Depot’s sales of tropical and temperate rainforest woods, even doing a short video of the woods Home Depot was selling.

In 1997, RAN once again began targeting The Home Depot (HD), this time for their sales of redwood in their west coast stores. The Home Depot became the ‘poster company’ for RAN’s Old Growth campaign.

Rainforest Relief began to infuse the national campaign with information on HD’s continuing sales of tropical hardwoods — the largest retailer of such in the country.

RR wrote the report “Stealing Home: The Old Growth Rainforests of Home Depot”. We also instituted a campaign strategy called Dead Rainforest Tours, where customers and journalists were taken aisle-by-aisle and educated about the specific old growth and rainforest woods on HD’s shelves.

After two years of campaigning by RAN and dozens of other groups across North America, HD relented and, in a statement released just days before another Day of Action, announced it would end its sales of all wood from “endangered forests” by the end of 2002 (see our Successes section).

In the statement, HD specifically mentioned lauan, the main product targeted by Rainforest Relief and Action Resource Center, as well as tool handles (often made of ramin from rainforests of Borneo).

HD has made some substantial progress in meeting their stated goal, but is still selling lots of wood from endangered forests.

While HD has phased in a Masonite-faced interior door, manufactured by Premdor, they still sell lauan doors.

They also still sell mahogany clamps and trowels, ramin tool handles, western red cedar shingles and a multitude of other products.

Send a message to The Home Depot and insist they live up to the letter of their announcement and phase out of all wood from endangered forests.

Company profile.

Home Depot Inc.

NYSE: HD

The Home Depot owns and operates 1,404 do-it-yourself warehouse retail stores offering building materials, home improvement products and related furnishings.

Employees: 256,000 (02/03/2002)

OFFICERS: Robert L. Nardelli, Chmn./CEO, Carol B. Tome, CFO/Exec. VP, Frank Fernandez, Exec. VP/Counsel/Secy., Dennis M. Donovan, Exec. VP. TRANSFER AGENT: EquiServe. Company incorporated 1978 in DE. Direct inquiries to: Director of Investor Relations.