Wood Purchasing

Wood Purchasing Policy

As the world's largest home improvement retailer and an industry leader on the environment, we have the ability to effect change by doing the right thing. To help protect endangered forests and to ensure that there will be timber for future generations, The Home Depot first issued its Wood Purchasing Policy in 1999.

We pledged to give preference to wood that has come from forests managed in a responsible way and to eliminate wood purchases from endangered regions of the world by the end of 2002.

Today there is limited scientific consensus on "endangered regions" of forestry. We have broadened our focus to understand the impact of our wood purchases in all regions and embrace the many social and economic issues that must be considered in recognizing "endangered regions" of forests.

To fulfill the pledge, it was necessary to trace the origin of each and every wood product on our shelves. After years of research, we now know item by item - from lumber to broom handles, doors to molding and paneling to plywood - where our wood products are harvested.

It has been a daunting task, but we are proud of our accomplishments. To further show the company's leadership commitment to the environment and to promote certification in the industry we felt compelled to share our findings.

Building on the Journey

We sell less than 1% of all the wood cut worldwide with 94% coming from North America. The forest land coverage in North America has grown by 1.5% over the past decade.

Purchases from the rainforests have always been small and continue to decrease. In fact, less than 0.15% of our total wood comes from areas around the Brazilian Amazon Basin. In regions like these, we have partnered with environmental groups, governments and industry to educate and motivate the local communities to promote sustainable timber harvest.

Our research taught us much about the world's forest coverage by country. This information came from many highly regarded organizations, including, but not limited to, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), USDA Forest Service, the U.S. State Department, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Global Forest and Trade Network, the Tropical Forest Foundation, the Tropical Forest Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund.

Environmental Seal of Approval

Wood is considered "certified" if it has been managed and harvested under strict guidelines and monitored by a third party to ensure sustainable practices are followed. In short, some certified timber can be tracked through its entire journey from stump to shelf.

One of the certification standards is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an independent organization based in Bonn, Germany. We sell more FSC certified wood than any retailer in America and at the same time we have transitioned more vendors to FSC certified wood than any other retailer in America.

We began to give preferential treatment to certified products in 1999. In addition, we have shifted buying wood from questionable sources to companies that practice responsible forestry.

Implementing the policy meant making minor changes to our wood supply chain and rewarding companies that practice responsible forestry. In the spirit of the Wood Purchasing Policy, we have:

• Stopped buying ramin dowels and shifted to FSC certified eucalyptus dowels
• Replaced carpenter pencils with FSC certified pencils
• Worked with our vendors to shift more than 80% of our lauan wood used in the production of doors to wood from more sustainable sources
• Replaced mahogany levels with domestically engineered wood
• Reduced our purchases of Indonesian lauan by more than 70%. The minimal amount of lauan purchases that remain in Indonesia are strategically placed with vendors that are aggressively pursuing certification, and have been engaged in third-party audits
• Moved more than 90% of our cedar purchases to second- and third-growth forests in the United States. The remaining cedar purchases are sourced from coastal British Columbia and have been through the local community stakeholder review. In addition, our vendors are participating in the Joint Solutions Process negotiations
• Significantly increased our FSC certified redwood. Our two primary suppliers of redwood both give a strong purchasing preference for FSC certified wood and we will continue to exercise a preference for certified redwood
• Introduced a line of building materials manufactured from wheat straw, including shelving, panel products and underlayment; many of these products are used as substitutes for tropical hardwoods
• Committed not to purchase uncertified wood products sourced from the 10 most vulnerable forest ecoregions as identified by the World Wildlife Fund in February 2001. These forest ecoregions include:
  
  Southern Pacific Islands forests
  Naga-Manapuri-Chin Hills moist forests
  Solomons-Vanuatu-Bismarck moist forests
  Cameroon Highlands forests
  Gulf of Guinea mangroves
  Madagascar mangroves
  Palawan moist forests
  Philippines moist forests
  Mexican dry forests
  East African mangroves
  
  
• Committed not to accept wood products made from the 40 suspect tree species listed by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre as potentially endangered species, unless the supplier provides the export permit. These species include:
  
  Afzelia bipindensis
  Amburana cearensis
  Aniba rosaeodora
  Aquilaria malaccensis
  Araucaria angustifolia
  Araucaria cunninghamii
  Aspidosperma polyneuron
  Baikiaea plurijuga
  Baillonella toxisperma
  Bertholletia excelsa
  Bombacopsis quinata
  Caesalpinia echinata
  Caryocar costaricense
  Cedrela fissilis
  Cedrela odorata
  Dalbergia cochinchinense
  Dalbergia davidii
  Dalbergia latifolia
  Dalbergis purpurascens
  Dialium cochinense
  Dyera costulata
  Erythrophleum fordii
  Eusidoroxylon zwageri
  Flindersia ifflaiana
  Guibourtia ehie
  Intsia bijuga
  Juglans neotropica
  Lovoa swynnertonni
  Microberlinia bisulcata
  Microberlinia brazzavillensis
  Milicia excelsa
  Nauclea diderrichii
  Neobalanocarpus heimii
  Pericopsis mooniana
  Pinus tecunumanii
  Pterocarpus angolensis
  Pterocarpus indidicus
  Santalum album
  Taxus wallichiana
  Vitex parviflora
  
  
• Implemented many more positive changes

The Home Depot Wood Purchasing Policy

1. The Home Depot will give preference to the purchase of wood and wood products originating from certified well managed forests wherever feasible.
2. The Home Depot will eliminate the purchase of wood and wood products from endangered regions around the world.
3. The Home Depot will practice and promote the efficient and responsible use of wood and wood products.
4. The Home Depot will promote and support the development and use of alternative environmental products.
5. The Home Depot expects its vendors and their suppliers of wood and wood products to maintain compliance with laws and regulations pertaining to their operations and the products they manufacture.