Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Gucci Unveils Steps to Meet its Eco Promises


Gucci has announced the launch of a worldwide eco-friendly program designed to progressively reduce the company's impact on the environment, which includes following through on a commitment it made to Rainforest Action Network in November.

The centerpiece of this new initiative is packaging newly designed to reduce materials, exclusively use FSC Certified paper and to be 100% recyclable. The initiative will be introduced in all of its 284 directly operated stores around the world from June 2010. The new packaging concept not only represents an important action towards environmental responsibility, but also reinforces Gucci’s heritage as the company approaches its 90th anniversary in 2011. It is within this dual context that Gucci’s new packaging has been conceived by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini pairing past with present and luxury with responsibility.

Patrizio di Marco, President and CEO of Gucci, said: “The world's leading brands are rightly judged today not just on the quality of their products and services, but also on the way they act in the community and towards the environment.

Gucci has committed that by the end of 2010 all of its purchases of non-recycled forest products will be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products to ensure that no paper is being sourced from endangered forests including the rainforests of Indonesia, one of world’s hotspots of deforestation and climate change. Furthermore, it will continue to seek alternative fiber options to use in its packaging products, include biodegradable bags made of corn, bamboo and cotton.

Through these various initiatives Gucci aims to achieve the following targets by the end of 2010:
- a reduction of 35 tons of plastic waste;
- a reduction of 1,400 tons of paper consumption (coming from the implementation of the new packaging, the replacement of a cardboard box with a recyclable bag and the optimisation of paper consumption from catalogs and promotional materials);
- a reduction of about 10,000 tons of Co2 emissions;
- a reduction of about 4 million liters of gas oil consumption.

Lafcadio Cortesi, Forest Campaign Director of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) an Environmental Paper Network member, commented, "We are impressed with Gucci's actions to improve its environmental footprint. The company’s decision to reduce its paper and wood consumption and only buy FSC Certified products will help protect Indonesian and other endangered forests around the world and sets an example for other companies in the luxury sector.”

Friday, June 04, 2010

Green Freedom? Really?

When I recently saw the logo of the new astroturf organization called, "Green Freedom," I honestly wondered if it was a joke. Its clenched fist/leaf just seemed too over-the-top, maybe even something out of a satirical article in the Onion.

But no, its a well funded and serious effort to confuse the public and discredit environmental NGO's around the world, as a means to protect the agenda of expansion and unconstrained exploitation of land and people by multinational corporations, particularly in the global South.

I think this article from June 2nd by Peter Nowack is a good summary of not only Green Freedom, but a fuller picture of an uncanny emergence of several such organizations simultaneously. Mr. Nowack says,

"In the last few weeks, pro-industry organizations here in the US, in Indonesia, and in the EU have been awakend from their slumber and are ramping up their rhetoric against Environmental Non-Profit Organizations (ENGOs) which seek to bring an end to deforestation and landscape-scale conversion of biologically diverse forestlands into monoculture plantations."
Read the full article here.....

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

VIDEO: Breakthrough in Tasmanian Struggle over Gunns Ltd. Pulp Mill

Environmental Paper Network members The Wilderness Society - Australia (TWS), would like to share a video announcing a major breakthrough in their work to achieve protection for ancient and endangered forests in Tasmania. If you've been following it or are a party involved, you know this hotspot has been one of the most urgent struggles in the story of the social and environmental transformation of the pulp and paper industry.

The Wilderness Society is now announcing....

"John Gay and Robin Gray have been forced to step down from the Board of Gunns Ltd and will no longer have any further involvement with the company or its subsidiaries.

This is fantastic news for Tasmania's precious forests - it now creates the opportunity to achieve permanent and lasting resolutions to the conflict over forestry in Tasmania."

Watch the video here.....