perhaps the most potential for transforming retailingmainstreaming green through active involvement with the green building professionals and community development activists. Community consumerism initiatives like the GCI project discussed above find the most fertile ground for collaboration with medium-sized community-oriented retailers like Hayward. Green retailing has major challenges to face in the case of the third main category of retailer: the large retailing chains, and in particular the big box outfits like Home Depot, Lowes and Rona. The challenges and contradictions of the green movement in dealing with these corporations are similar to those faced by the wood certification movement in dealing with large corporations. On one hand, big corporations have the power and resources to affect the entire economy quickly. On the other hand, the very nature of this mass retailing seems intrinsically antithetical to closed-loop communitybased economic development. Home Depot has had an environmental programme since the early nineties. It has opened recycling depots at a few of its stores; developed an Environmental Greenprint educational pamphlet demonstrating how people can cut energy consumption and waste in their homes; instituted a car-pooling programme for its Atlanta employees; incorporated more use of recycled materials in its own office operations; and established a six-figure grant programme to donate to small ENGOs. It also tweaked its product line, dropping lead plumbing solder, and introducing a more environmentally-friendly paintbrush cleaner (Home Depot Inc., 2004). Its biggest move came, however, after years of pressure and protest from environmentalists. In 1999, Home Depot agreed to