Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace has accused Lumber Liquidators Inc., among other United States-based wood flooring importer/retailers, of importing forest products from suppliers sourcing wood illegally. This is the second report to scrutinize Lumber Liquidators' foreign import operations.
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Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace has accused Lumber Liquidators Inc., among other United States-based wood flooring importer/retailers, of importing forest products from suppliers sourcing wood illegally. This is the second report to scrutinize Lumber Liquidators' foreign import operations.
The report was released by Greenpeace after it conducted a two-year investigation into the Brazilian Amazon timber sector. The report claims that some Brazilian timber producers and their customers based in the U.S. and abroad are taking advantage of the country's lax oversight and regulatory loopholes and are fudging government documents to hide the origins of wood species.
"It's like a teenager using his older brother's ID to buy alcohol from a store owner that doesn't make the effort to look closely at the picture," said Daniel Brindis, senior forest campaigner at Greenpeace, in a statement.
While the report implicates a number of foreign and domestic companies, a section about potential Lacey Act violations concentrates on three American companies: Lumber Liquidators (Toano, Va.), Massachusetts-based International Forest Products and Wisconsin-based Timber Holdings USA. The report claimed that these three companies all purchase timber from sawmills that have been linked to nefarious suppliers.
Lumber Liquidators denies the findings in the report. It released the following statement in wake up the report's publication last week:
"At Lumber Liquidators, we take environmental compliance very seriously and we back our commitment to responsible sourcing with real action. The policies and procedures that we have in place for the sourcing, harvesting and manufacturing of all of our products are designed to meet or exceed legal requirements. Lumber Liquidators operates in a manner intended to ensure our company is a superior corporate citizen that seeks to adhere to all applicable laws, rules and regulations wherever we do business. As such, we demand that our business partners, suppliers and distributors meet our standards and operate in an ethical, legal and sustainable manner. In addition, we commit resources around the world to monitor our processes and compliance with environmental chain of custody regulations at each step of the way until the products reach our stores. Lumber Liquidators is committed to uncompromising integrity in how we conduct ourselves individually and as a company."
Lumber Liquidators also said new suppliers are evaluated to ensure compliance to manufacturing, quality, social and environmental requirements. Suppliers must also provide chain of custody documents and other evidence to prove legal sourcing twice: prior to purchase and prior to shipment.
A report released by Washington D.C.-based non-profit Environmental Investigation Agency in October contained allegations that Lumber Liquidators sourced product from protected Russian forests. Two class-action lawsuits claiming as much were filed in the wake of the report and a federal raid on Lumber Liquidators headquarters. Those lawsuits have been dismissed, but two other lawsuits against the company are still being considered.
Other companies implicated in the Greepeace report include J. Thompson Mahogany, Sabra International, East Teak Fine Hardwoods, Advantage Trim and Lumber, Timbex, Baillie Lumber, J. Gibson Mcllvain, Universal Forest Products, Aljoma Lumber and General Woodcraft Inc.