Easy Going Green

LACEY Enforcement Begins

Enforcement of the LACEY Act for wood furniture begins July 1, 2009.

Amendments passed last year make it illegal to import items that contain illegally logged wood. The definition of illegally logged is that which is either sold below market price or cut in violation of treaties, laws and regulations.The Act requires origin of wood species declarations from importers that contains the scientific name of the plant imported, its country of origin and a description of its value and quantity in products. The declaration of wood origin and value requires a signature at the bottom under penalty of perjury although many other import documents do not.

EPA Portal for Retailers Coming Soon

By the end of this year, the EPA with encouragement from the Retail Industry Leaders Association's Sustainability Initiative group, RSI, will open a web portal specifically to help them find data easier within the EPA system. The portal will include sustainability and compliance/regulations links as a "one stop shop" for all things retail/EPA and should include all the LACEY amendments that will become regulations prior to its launch. The web site won't have...

IF Wal-Mart is the new FDA...

I am really not trying to pick on Wal-Mart this month...it is just that all the other retailers just seem to sitting around doing nothing (which you will see in my upcoming reviews.) Right now though, be sure to check the trackback to "How Wal-Mart has Become the New FDA" in the GreenBiz.com Buzz. With Wal-Mart's current behavior on the LACEY and CARB issues following this model, I think the more consumer and watchdog group pressure they receive, the more the furniture industry will change as a whole. It is already happening now - Wal-Mart requires its vendors to change packaging or wood type immediately and then once a vendor finds a way to make it cheap enough for Wal-Mart, they start making it for all the OSS and wholesale clubs. So why shouldn't the other buyers sit on their butts all day? As long as they make sure they have vendors that are selling to Wal-Mart - let them do all the work for them, it's great strategy - not a leadership strategy, but a very efficient, energy-conserving strategy. Green is about conserving energy too, isn't it?

As for Wal-Mart as the FDA, thought I would dust off one of my commentaries on BPA (Bisphenol A) too...

WWF & Wal-Mart - it's wood not wrestling!

Seems like a stretch to see the cute little World Wildlife Fund Panda logo and the Wal-Mart Smiley logo in the same ad, let alone on their names on the same press release...but today both organizations announce that Wal-Mart has joined the WWF Global Forest and Trade Network. The network coordinates the initiative to protect threatened and valuable forests like the threatened forests in the Amazon, Amur-Heilong (Russia), Borneo, Sumatra, Congo, and Mekong (Southeast Asia.)
Through the WWF's initiative, the GFTN assists companies in evaluating their procurement and implementing appropriate action plans...

EPA Pressed to Review Composite Wood

Gotta love the market spin... when the Furniture Today article reported that the "EPA Denies Formaldehyde Position" you've got to be thinking this is never going to happen. But just wait - according to both the details in the full document released by the EPA and even by comments made by Formaldehyde Campaign Director, Becky Gillette, the denial is actually "a good thing."

Lacey Bans Illegal Wood - Any More Holes?

Congress finally passed the Farm Bill after having it bounced back from a veto. So what does farming have to do with furniture you ask me? Well, this is Congress...and every bill includes all sorts of things, in this case an illegal logging Amendment to an 108 year old conservation law focusing on illegal commercial trafficking of wildlife and non-native plants. Illegally logged wood is specifically defined as wood that is sold below market price or cut violating treaties or laws. By signing this into Law, Congress has made the U.S. the first country to ban illegal logging and trade. Enactment should take place sometime in...