First Home Depot agreed to stop sourcing wood from endangered forests, and was followed by Wickes and HomeBase, other major home improvement retailers. Now, the focus has moved to home builders, which consume 72 percent of U.S. lumber to build 1.2 million homes annually. As March closed, Centex Homes and Kaufman & Broad, two of the nations largest homebuilders, agreed to eliminate wood from endangered forests, phase in certified wood, implement wood-use efficiency measures in new home construction, and identify non-wood alternatives.
The two companies combined build over 40,000 new homes each year. Centex Homes nets $5 billion in annual sales and has constructed 400 developments. The average new home uses well over 16,000 board feet of lumber. Most new homes contain dozens of wood components that originate in the world’s last remaining old growth forests: Cedar planks and shingles; Douglas Fir lumber; Hemlock molding and trim; Lauan hollow-core doors, plywood and paneling; Mahogany exterior doors.
In a letter to Rainforest Action Network, the leader of the grassroots coalition behind this effort, Andrew Hannigan, Centex President, wrote, “As an industry leader committed to saving the world’s endangered forests, Centex Homes will, by the end of 2002, eliminate from our product mix wood from endangered forests – including certain lauan,
redwood and cedar products.” The company will demand supplier compliance and will conduct an audit to determine the source of all wood products that originate in endangered forests.” Centex has formed a senior level “Environmentally Responsible Construction Task Force” with officials from purchasing and technology to manage the process, report to management on areas for improvement, and to identify alternatives to wood.
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