Enviromental activists targeted a Home Depot shareholders meeting on Thursday, claiming the home improvement giant’s buying practices in Chile support destruction of endangered wilderness there.
Members of the group International Rivers were outside the Cobb Galleria in Cobb County, and for a time, inside the conference center aiming to disrupt the company’s annual meeting. Randeep Walia with the enviromental group says Home Depot’s shareholders need to know the company’s connection to suppliers of wood that want to build new hydro-electric dams in southern Chile:
Members of the group International Rivers were outside the Cobb Galleria in Cobb County, and for a time, inside the conference center aiming to disrupt the company’s annual meeting. Randeep Walia with the enviromental group says Home Depot’s shareholders need to know the company’s connection to suppliers of wood that want to build new hydro-electric dams in southern Chile:
"Hopefully that message got out to them today, that some of the areas that their company’s involved in might not be in the guidelines of what Home Depot purports to be, which is an environmentally-conscious company."But Ron Jarvis, a top management official with Atlanta-based Home Depot, says environmental groups for more than a year have been unfairly using the company as a platform to shape Chilean energy policy:
"For us to do that, we’d have to become the experts on energy, in particular hydro-electricity, and we are not the experts on that. So for us to come out and make a comment on whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, it’s not something we’re going to do."Jarvis says Home Depot’s current wood-buying policy in the country is fully-endorsed by Chilean enviromental groups.
