An employee of the Mendocino Redwood Company, whose FSC-certified lumber will be sold at Home Depot stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, plants a redwood seedling to replace harvested timber.
Photo: Mendocino Forest Product Home Depot stores in the San Francisco Bay Area will now stock framing lumber only if it is certified according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. Regional FSC-certified suppliers Mendocino Redwood Company and Humboldt Redwood Company are providing plywood, dimensional lumber, fencing, and other Douglas fir and redwood products, which Home Depot says will be sold at no extra cost. FSC certification is region-specific and requires not only environmentally responsible forestry but also adherence to social and economic standards (see "Forest Products Certification: How It Works,"EBN May 2011). In addition to sustainable, low-impact harvesting, the two Home Depot suppliers say they actively manage habitat to support dwindling species like Coho salmon and spotted owls.
Paula, M. (2011, April 29). Home Depot Switches 40 Stores to FSC Lumber. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/home-depot-switches-40-stores-fsc-lumber
I was calling around for FSC redwood and talked to a local lumberyard who said it was very hard to get. He also said Home Depot had "fake FSC" redwood because they had someone on the board, blah, blah, blah. Any insight? Or is a FSC sticker a FSC sticker? I like shopping local, don't like Home Depot's politics, but I can see how they would have the buying power to buy up all the FSC, especially in the Bay Area.
Getting FSCwood has never been as easy as getting standard lumber, of course, and tariffs and COVID have exacerbated this problem. Years ago I tried to get pricing on FSC dimensional lumber in the Bay Area and availability/volume was a challenge even back then. I don't live in the Bay Area, and don't know all the nuances of its lumber distribution (or FSC politics), but usually the simplest answer is the right one. I'm guessing that Home Depot just has the combination of scale and better distribution network.
Brent, you are correct, scale and supply chain enabled us to bring FSC framing lumber to the SF market. We jumped through many hoops and are lucky to have Mendocino Redwood as one of our suppliers. They made this possible. No upcharge for FSC wood in these 40 stores and definitely not fake FSC wood.
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