Small changes at Wal-Mart can have a big impact. Wal-Mart is the biggest US retailer of furniture, so we're seeing it as a good thing that they have joined a World Wildlife Fund initiative and announced they will investigate their supply chain and phase out illegal sources of wood. Here's the whole story...
Wal-Mart to Phase Out Furniture Made from Illegal Wood
It all started around the beginning of the year, when the independent Environmental Investigation Agency released a report titled "How Wal-Mart's Sourcing Practices Encourage Illegal Logging and Threaten Endangered Species". Among other things, the report laid out how EIA investigators traced the source of wood used for cribs sold at Wal-Mart back to a Siberian tiger habitat, where officials were bribed to look the other way.
In response, Wal-Mart announced that they joined the WWF's Global Forest & Trade Network and will work to phase out illegal sources of wood from their supply chain. To us, this is a step in the right direction, but given Wal-Mart's low-cost-at-any-cost corporate culture, we'd rather see Wal-Mart make a full commitment to the Forest Stewardship Council's FSC wood certification program. Home Depot carries some, but not all, FSC-certified lumber, so it is not unprecedented for a large retailer to sign on to a meaningful certification program.
Do you have Wal-Mart furniture? Do you think about the source of wood in the furniture you buy?
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I'm just not sure if I can start going there again...
view Lizzykewl's profile
"Phase out"? If the stuff is illegal why don't they just stop?
view Charlotte's profile
I don't shop at Walmart because I so disagree with their "low cost at any cost" philosophy. The only way we as consumers can vote on these issues is with our $$ and how we choose to spend them. No Walmart furniture here.
view Alice's profile
Walmart sucks...no matter how they spin it....I ain't buying it!
view hdtex's profile
I love how we say we should vote with our "$$", but refuse to support an obviously good initiative by Walmart with our "$$."
They may not be the best company in the world, but they are certainly one of the largest. A small change like this can be very impacting and lead to more important changes, that at least deserves some support.
view TheGadfly's profile
It is a good change, but I still find it alarming that so many people buy their furniture at wall mart. That cheap furniture will be out on the street in a few years, a total waste of resources, even if they're from "normal" forests, not tiger ones. Today, in my house, I have furniture that my parents bought 55 years ago, after saving up for years for it. I treasure it more than anything, and hope my son will take it after I'm gone. I do still think Wallmart is the biggest perpetrator of our wasteful consumer society.
view SFGail's profile