Inspections and research of wooden garden furniture at ten large retailers in the Netherlands - summary

Inspections and research of wooden garden furniture in ten chain shores in the Netherlands

Summary
For the third year in succession, Milieudefensie [Friends of the Earth Netherlands] has examined the selection of wooden garden furniture in ten chain shores. Milieudefensie took an inventory of the proportion of furniture on the shop floor which is made from FSC-certified wood and of furniture which falsely claims to be sustainable at GAMMA, Groenrijk, HEMA, IKEA, Intratuin, Kwantum, Leen Bakker, Life & Garden, Praxis Tuin and Tuincentrum Overvecht. Approximately 9,500 pieces of furniture in 63 branches were surveyed.

Of these pieces, 37 per cent was FSC-certified. This furniture comes from forests and plantations which are sustainably managed and where the entire supply chain is independently monitored. The other furniture is of questionable origin: either the source of the furniture is unknown or its source is forests which are not sustainably managed.

In the case of 23 per cent of the furniture, false sustainability claims were found. That means that the consumer of this furniture is given information on sustainable or legal forestry management and is thus misled. These claims cannot be verified, and it is quite possible that this furniture comes from forests where destructive or illegal logging takes place. False sustainability claims mean that the consumer cannot consciously choose to buy genuine sustainably produced wood.

Most of the garden furniture surveyed was made from wood originating from the Perum Perhutani plantations on Java (Indonesia). In May 2007 AruPa, a local Indonesian non-profit organisation, conducted a field study on illegal logging and the numerous social conflicts in which these plantations are involved. There are deep-rooted land rights conflicts between the state-run forestry company Perhutani and the local population, which are often expressed in violence. This has led to dozens of fatalities and injuries in recent years.

Most of the illegal logging is perpetrated by companies, district government officials, politicians, the military and village chiefs. The AruPa study showed that in 2006 this was responsible for 40 per cent of illegally logged teak forest in Randublatung, a district in Central Java.

Milieudefensie also continued to find garden furniture made from teak from Burma, a country run by a military dictatorship which severely violates human rights. Trade in Burmese teak causes large-scale deforestation and finances armed conflict in that country. Garden furniture was also found from varieties of wood from Malaysia and Vietnam, where deforestation and illegal logging are commonplace.

On the basis of the study’s findings, Milieudefensise has concluded that increases in the proportion of FSC-certified garden furniture are mainly due to the efforts of home improvement centres (Gamma, Praxis Tuin, Leen Bakker) and Tuincentrum Overvecht (garden centre). Groenrijk, Intratuin and Life & Garden garden centres, as well as the HEMA department store and IKEA home furnishings lag behind, with a very low proportion of FSC-certified wood.

This causes unfair market competition. Companies that invest in doing business sustainability face obstacles from companies which sell cheap wood from unsustainable sources.

Milieudefensie therefore calls for government support for companies which are leading the way, via policy, and to keep illegally logged wood off the Dutch market by means of legislation.

False sustainability claims are an onerous problem. HEMA and IKEA provide nearly all of their garden furniture with a claim which, according to Milieudefensie , cannot be verified and which misleads consumers. Milieudefensie also found claims in five chain stores which in 2006 were ruled by the Advertising Code Commission to be misleading and unverifiable. Far fewer false claims were found this year in garden centres than in previous years.

The majority of companies apparently do not take the rulings of the Advertising Code Commission very seriously. Therefore, this year Milieudefensie will go to the Consumer Authority, the consumer rights and fair trade monitoring body of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Milieudefensie expects this body to address the sector and thus put an end to the false claims.

Life & Garden was given the ‘Botte Bijl’ [Blunt Axe] Award in 2007, as the company which had achieved the least. Life & Garden has an extremely low proportion of FSC-certified garden future in its stores (five per cent). A specific and sound environmental policy is also lacking and in recent years very little progress has been made. Finally, Milieudefensie found a great deal of wood there which came from Perum Perhutani plantations. As with the other garden centres, however, Life & Garden had also made efforts to address the problem of false claims.

In presenting the Blunt Axe Award, Milieudefensie calls upon Life & Garden to increase its share of FSC-certified wood to 100 per cent and to stop selling wood with questionable origins. To accomplish this, Life & Garden should adopt good environmental policy with specific and ambitious objectives and a step-by-step plan for achieving these in the coming years.