  |
||||
|
Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... 1999
Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
||||
| MARCH
11, 1999 2:26 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Rainforest Action Network 415/398-4404 Mark Westlund: ranmedia@ran.org Michael Brune: mbrune@ran.org |
||||
| Home Depot Missed The Boat With Eco-Wood Strategy; Protests Scheduled At Stores Across US, Canada On Saint Patrick's Day | ||||
| "Home Depot's voiced intention to increase supplies of eco-friendly wood
doesn't address the fundamental reason why protesters have been camped out in
front of their stores for the past year-and-a-half. Home Depot still plans to
sell products made from the planet's last remaining old growth forests, and
that's simply barbaric when a scant 20 percent of these ancient forests still
survive." - Michael Brune, Old Growth Campaign Director SAN FRANCISCO - March 11 - Environmentalists reacted with skepticism at news of Home Depot's plans to increase the amount of environmentally certified forest products available at the retail behemoth's nearly 800 stores. "I'm not sure how valuable this will be, because Home Depot has made no plans to phase out the egregious supply of old growth wood products the store currently sells," said Michael Brune, RAN's Old Growth Campaign Director. In Vancouver, British Columbia, this week, Home Depot Canada president Annette Verschuren told forestry industry executives that Home Depot had joined the Certified Forest Products Council, a non-profit organization that promotes forest products that have been examined from the seedling to the shelf for environmental and social merits. "Unless Home Depot stops selling old growth wood this gesture will be meaningless," said RAN's Brune. "We don't intend to let Home Depot score a public relations victory with this half-measure. On March 17 grassroots environmental groups in over 100 locations across the U.S. and Canada will be protesting at Home Depot stores, asking Home Depot to stop selling old growth and "go green" in honor of Saint Patrick's Day." Home Depot is the largest retailer of old growth wood products. The wide array of old growth wood Home Depot carries includes cedar and Douglas fir from the temperate rainforests of British Columbia, old growth lauan and ramin from Southeast Asia, and mahogany from the Amazon. Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action. ### |
||||