.jpg)
St-Fulgence, QC, Canada — On the morning of Friday, September 14, the Greenpeace Ship Artic Sunrise began a blockade (video) of the freighter Jaeger Arrow in Quebec's Saguenay River, preventing the export of thousands of tonnes of pulp to Europe. The pulp, manufactured by SFK Pulp from Canada's Boreal Forest, is destined for Stora Enso in Germany and France.
By the end of the day eight were arrested (video) and the story was out.
Slide Show here.
Today ForestEthics, architects of the successful Victoria's Dirty Secret campaign, announced the next target in its quest to hold catalog companies accountable for their role in destruction of Canada's Boreal Forest.
Activists put the Board of Directors of Sears Holding Corporation on notice today with in-person visits announcing the launch of a new campaign challenging Sears/Land's End to clean up its catalog practices.
Sears/Land's End introduced the first ever catalog dating back to the company's beginnings in the 1880s. Today, it is the largest catalog company without responsible paper standards, mailing out more than 425 million catalogs a year that contain almost no recycled content, and using paper sourced from vital ecosystems and endangered forests, including Canada's Boreal Forest.
A bunch of companies producing big brand items have signed up to a UK government programme to measure the carbon footprint of their products' life-cycle, from sourcing raw material to disposal. The BBC reports that 'Kimberly-Clark intends to measure the environmental impact of Andrex Toilet Tissue and Huggies nappies.' (That's diapers, if you're American). Watch and learn.
The LA Times is reporting this week on the challenges of being a green consumer in a vast sea of green labels and the rising number of corporate claims of virtuousness broadcast daily on newswires such as the Environmental Leader and CSRwire.com.
As a sign of these times, brands are scrambling to position themselves as environmentally and socially responsible several upcoming conferences, such as SustainableBrands'07 in New Orleans and Business for Social Responsibility in San Francisco, are themed toward green branding and, one would hope, a modicum of sincere idea sharing on meaningful action.
Many of these companies deserve real kudos. But where is the line between green and greenwashing? What do you think about some of these major brands? Is their brand image legitimate? Obviously, its complicated, but one innovative idea is DoTheRightThing.Com , which lets you decide by creating a community where news on the topic can be posted and community members can rate the action on positive and negative scales. Over time, the result is a consumer-driven rating on responsibility for different brands, and as a result, more accountability and effective consumer watchdogging of these brands.
When it comes to paper choices and true responsibility in the industry, the Environmental Paper Network and its member groups can help you sort through the clutter to efficiently find the raw truth. Visit to see a list of links to members, our Common Vision, and guidance for making responsible paper choices. Its important, its easier than you think, and, you can be sure, its important to your brand management to make responsible choices when it comes to paper.
On August 28th, Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association declared, "In just 278 more days, the paper ticket will become a collector's item."
This is due to the decision for all of its member airlines to completely phase out paper tickets as of June 1 of next year, a move they claim will save 50,000 trees a year.
As the back to school shopping season comes to a close, environmental groups ForestEthics and Dogwood Alliance released a "report card" today on the forest-related paper practices of the five major office supply companies: Staples, Office Depot, Corporate Express, FedEx Kinko's and OfficeMax. Each of the five companies has been engaged in discussions with two environmental groups, which have resulted in several new advances: a new environmental policy and increased recycled paper use (Corporate Express), a committment to sustainable logging (Staples), and the elimination of sourcing from endangered mountain caribou habitat (FedEx Kinko's)
"The office supply sector has finally begun to make its paper supply more environmentally friendly," said Andrew Goldberg, Director of Corporate Engagement at the Dogwood Alliance. "Where just a few years ago you could not find paper with recycled content, now it is readily available. This is a good first step, but these companies must sharpen their pencils and use their purchasing power to reform business as usual industrial logging and bring about improved managament practices on the ground in the Endangered Forests of the Southern US, Canada's Great Boreal Forest and other parts of the world."
Dogwood Alliance and ForestEthics have been working to reform the environmental practices of the office supply industry since 2000, and their successful campaigns have resulted in record high production at recycled pulp mills in 2005, and increased demand for environmentally preferable papers. The new report, titled, Green Grades: A Report Card on the Paper Practices of the Office Supply Sector, updates the progress made by the industry according to five categories, each of which is crucial to forest protection.
Posts
All Comments
