News and Alerts
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From Progressive Maryland...May 23, 2003
A SWELL DAY FOR HOME DEPOT
A timely tip for Gov. Ehrlich: If you've been planning to make
some home improvements on your governor's mansion in Annapolis, now
may be the ideal time for you to stop by Home Depot and pick up some
lighting fixtures. You'd probably get a very good deal.
That's because these days, in Home Depot's executive suites,
Bob Ehrlich just may be the most popular governor going ? for two
reasons.
Number One: The governor's veto of the General Assembly revenue
act will save Home Depot millions of dollars in corporate income tax.
Home Depot has been a prime exploiter of the Delaware Holding Company
scam.
Number Two: The governor's generosity on veto day didn't stop
with tax loopholes. In another of his 19 vetoes, the governor also
killed one of the most important environmental bills that emerged out
of this year's General Assembly session, a bill that just happened
to be vigorously opposed by none other than Home Depot.
The legislation, the Maryland Energy Efficiency Standards Act, would
have required a variety of residential and commercial appliances sold
in Maryland to meet strict energy efficiency standards by March 2005.
Home Depot didn't want to be bothered.
Neither did a variety of other corporate heavyweights. On Thursday,
the Consumer Electronics Association, one of the biggest corporate
lobbying powers in the country, shot out a news release applauding
Gov. Ehrlich for his veto.
Maryland environmental activists weren't applauding. The vetoed
bill, introduced by Sen. Paul Pinsky from Prince George's
County, had been developed with the help of the Maryland Public
Interest Resource Group and the National Defense Resource Council.
The goal: to help reduce energy consumption ? and maybe even save
Marylanders the expense of underwriting a new power plant down the
road.
Why the veto? Setting rules for products, the governor explained,
would be "bad for business."
July 2002
The law firm, Spiro Moss Barness Harrison and Barge LLP of Los Angeles,
wishes to communicate with current and former Home Depot Loss Prevention
Supervisors, in order to obtain information concerning a class action against
Home Depot.
more details
Dec 2001
When Home Depot is not out plundering the world's forests for temporary corporate
gain, they find other, innovative ways to 
waste
precious resources. The items pictured are non-recycleable plastic packaging
which came with products that are produced exclusively for Home Depot; the Hampton
Bay "Callaway" fan and a Defiant-brand door lock set. These pieces
of packaging were in addtion to the ususal cardboard, plastic bags, other plastics,
and styrofoam.
Home Depot is a company which makes a lot of feel-good environmental promises,
and then ignores them. Their own website
makes this statement, "We are committed to improving the environment by
selling products that are manufactured, packaged and labeled in a responsible
manner..."
Write CEO Bob Nardelli and tell him to live up to their green
promises! Sample letter
2000
Subject: Alaska Home Depot is Really Bad
received: March 29, 2000
Alaska just recently got its first Hope Depot. Alaska has a huge
gardening population and there are little greenhouses and nurseries
around every corner. Alaska is still one of the few places that doesn't
have a lot of pests and plant diseases, well not any more. I think its
kind of a coincidence that the first season Home Depot arrived in Alaska
there was an outbreak of Late Blight of potatoes, the same disease that
struck Ireland in the 1860's. Experts say it was due to tomato plants or
seed potatoes brought in from out of state. Home Depot brought in
truckloads of these plants and seed potatoes from out of state and
outside the US prompting a ban on importing these plants from outside
Alaska by the Alaska Dept of Agriculture. Once the disease is here it is
here for good. Home Depot has had its effect on the last frontier too!
Not a good one either.
March 23 Kaufman and Broad Victory!!
March 30th Old Growth Demo Cancelled
1999
Dec 19th Borneo Rain Forest on Verge of Total Destruction
Sept 2nd. Home Depot Applies for Permit to Kill
Endangered Species
August 11th - RACINE COUNTY PULLS PLUG ON HOME
DEPOT AFTER TESTIMONY: "HOME DEPOT SELLS OLD GROWTH WOOD"
WORLD-WIDE CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO COMBAT WTO
ASSAULT ON LAST REMAINING FORESTS
June 30th - NFC, et.al., Files Lawsuit
Against USFS & BLM to Stop Logging in PNW
June 7th - Julia Butterfly
Going Strong in Vigil to Protect Redwoods One and A Half Years in a Tree.
May 26, 10:30 am -
Home Depot Darth Vader with an award of anti-environmental excellence,
the Golden Stump Award.
May 25th - Greenpeace activists installed The Home
Depot's logo on a clear cut swath of ancient trees in British Columbia
May 4th FAN and the forests need
your help!
April 20, 1999 - Top Level Commission: Forest
Crisis Can Be Reversed
April 16, - HOME DEPOT TO BRAINWASH CHILDREN IN CLASSIC
EARTHDAY "GREENWASH"
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RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
For immediate release - March 11, 1999
Press contact - 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
U.S., 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 -- 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.