WWF
criticises Oak Furniture Land for 'lack of transparency' on timber
sourcing
Will Green
20 October 2015
Oak Furniture Land has been
criticised by campaigners for a lack of transparency on its timber sourcing
policy.
WWF said despite “repeated approaches” the company has “not
shown that it has taken any steps towards publishing either a policy on where
it sources its timber, or figures that indicate timber is coming from
well-managed forests”.
WWF said Oak Furniture Land scored “zero
trees” in its Timber Scorecard, launched in July 2015 and which rates companies
on their sourcing standards.
The charity
said a zero score was given to firms that are “failing to tell customers if
their products are made from sustainable timber, and therefore could be at risk
of selling products that are contributing to deforestation”.
More than a third of the 128 assessed firms scored zero trees on the
latest Timber Scorecard while half received either two or three trees, the
highest score.
Julia Young, manager of WWF’s global forest and trade network programme
in the UK, said: “Lack of transparency is unacceptable in an age of ongoing
forest loss. How can companies think it is fine to continue like this, telling
customers they are responsible and should be trusted, but not sharing any
policy or performance information to back it up?
“It seems Oak Furniture Land, for
example, is disregarding
timber sustainability, despite relying on timber for their business
success. Right now, we don’t know if the wood it uses is sourced from well
managed forests or not – and nor do its millions of customers.”
Oak
Furniture Land did not respond to a request for comment.
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WWF puts pressure on Oak Furniture Land and Fender to sort
out wood procurement policies
Charles
Wark, 22 May 2015
A new WWF-UK study has raised
concerns about the ability of some UK companies – not least Oak Furniture Land and Fender – to prove
where their wood supply comes from.
Customers
could unwittingly be buying products containing wood from threatened forests. Some
products are not covered by the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which requires companies
to make sure that the wood their products are made from comes from a legal
source.
In nearly a
third of the products sent for laboratory analysis, the results found that the
wood was different to the one declared by the retailer
The WWF study was designed to see if companies that were selling
non-EUTR covered products – such as chairs, musical instruments and toys – had
done sufficient checks to ensure they were at least made from wood from legal
sources. 26 products from 17 different companies were tested.
In nearly a
third of the products sent for laboratory analysis, the results found that the
wood was different to the one declared by the retailer, and nearly half of the
companies were selling products made from timber from areas that experience
high levels of illegal logging.
Most of the
companies were either unable or not prepared to tell researchers where the wood
came from, even when they were told by WWF that they were selling products made
of high risk wood.
In the WWF
timber testing work there were seven companies selling timber from regions
where there are risks of illegal logging. These companies did not have
information on their websites about their policy on ensuring the wood in their
products is from a legal or sustainable source.
Julia
Young, the manager of WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network programme at WWF-UK
said: “We purchased goods from 17 companies, and not one could provide evidence
that they had carried out sufficient due diligence.
“We cannot continue to have a market where customers cannot be sure the
product they buy is made from the wood declared. In the absence of better
information from companies that their wood has come from a legally or
sustainably logged forest, customers are in the dark.
“We’re calling for improvements to the EUTR, as currently companies can
still legally sell certain products that have been made of illegally logged
wood. We also want far more transparency on sourcing practices and performance.
“We are heartened that as a result of this work, new businesses are now
engaging with us to find out how to improve their due diligence, and 40 others
have already signed up to our campaign. The forest campaign involves a pledge
to buy from legal and sustainable sources. This is the right way to go and we want
more companies to take this challenge and their responsibility seriously.”
Almost 70,000 people have signed the WWF-UK #SaveForests petition.
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Is Oak Furniture Environment-Friendly? by Stephen O.
