One way to understand certification’s clout is to view it from one of the world’s largest purchasers of wood products. “It’s important to us as a company,” says David Day, public relations manager for…
One way to understand certification’s clout is to view it from one of the world’s largest purchasers of wood products. “It’s important to us as a company,” says David Day, public relations manager for Toronto-based Home Depot Canada, a subsidiary of the American giant retailer, Home Depot Inc. of Atlanta.
In 1999, Home Depot announced that it would buy only wood that was certified, and it particularly endorsed FSC. (It promised, as well, that consumers would not see any price increases resulting from certification.) Although Home Depot is promoting FSC-certified products, it is also working with the other internationally recognized groups, partly because very little of Canada’s timber holdings now meet the rigorous FSC standard.
The public, for the most part, has not yet demanded that wood products bear a so-called green label, Day conceded. Still, plans are underway to, as he puts it, “to get some certified wood into the stores.” That alone is enough incentive to persuade Canadian wood producers to become certified, if only to gain marketing advantage. “Over the next few years, certification will become more prevalent,” Day notes.
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