Some Business You Can’t Afford to Do

Dealing with Imported Doors/Door Components: Part 3

Valued Members,

Last time, we talked about disruption to your business operations if you are found to be manufacturing, importing, selling or installing doors containing components that are not compliant with the Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999 (CEPA 1999). As a reminder, non-compliant components may contain:

• Certain polyurethane foams
• Paints containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• Components with banned flame retardants

Today, we’ll discuss reputational harm. Your reputation is based on many things – product quality, safety and longevity; service; quality of installation (for dealers); fair pricing – and, increasingly, on environmental compliance. You’ve worked long and hard to earn your customers’ and stakeholders’ trust. Why blow it to save a few dollars on product cost?

Enforcement under CEPA 1999 is no joke, and as inspectors become aware of products made with banned chemicals, they will investigate them – all the way up (or down) the supply chain. These investigations are public record and can make the media, which means they’ll be read/seen by someone, somewhere. If that gets tied to you, your reputation will suffer, which hurts your sales. In addition, you may be asked replace product you’ve already sold or installed – as warranty service, at your cost. 

Unrelated to non-compliant materials is the issue of the quality of the finished product. We have received reports that these doors degrade more quickly, sometimes as quickly as two years! This means you will have warranty claims, and they can hurt you in two ways:

• The immediate financial cost of having to replace the door with more expensive product
• The long-term damage repeated claims will do to your reputation

Is this business you can afford to do?

In our next email, we’ll be looking at the types of environmental and health hazards doors made with non-compliant components.

Sincerely,
Your CDI National Board of Directors