ACTION ALERT
Home Depot Victory to Ignite an Industry Chain Reaction
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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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
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!