Corporate Engagement Director Andrew Goldberg waxes philisophical on all that nature has to offer this season…
While I spend my professional time working to protect forests, this time of year my thoughts can’t help but turn to the amazing generosity of nature found in my backyard.
First there’s the garden. It has survived the stomping, pulling and weeding of two kids, the indiscrete wanderings of the lawnmower the vagaries of the Southern Appalachian weather and much more than can be told in this family oriented blog. In spite of this or perhaps because of being a product of being such a rich life our little scrap of garden has this year given us the best tomato ever. Sweet, sour, juicy, firm and very, very red. It is exactly the kind of experience you hope to have when you grow these things.
Then there’s the jungle that has emerged from the gutters that drain my wife’s office attached to the side of our house. Oak and pine sprouts, grasses and possibly shrubbery are visible from certain angles in the backyard. How is it possible for this gutter eco-stem to mature so fast? I swear I was up on a ladder this spring cleaning those gutters out. And what is the possibility that they contain some heretofore undiscovered life form?
And don’t get me started on the wonders of Southern Forests. From the native population, the slave-powered rice plantations, to the yeoman farmer and to the destruction at the hands of the pulp and paper industry happening today, our forests have long felt the hand of man. Yet their self-renewing power is amazing. Southern Forests are the most diverse on the continent. Indeed there are some threads in the web of life which exist only here. So much life is still out there. And that’s why we fight. Nature you rock!
School has just begun and we are already handing out grades. Yesterday Dogwood Alliance and ForestEthics, released the 2009 Green Grades Office Supply Report Card, an important vehicle for holding the office supply industry accountable for their impacts on our forests. We are pleased to report strong progress from old-school retailers, with FedEx Office, Staples and Office Depot making major moves away from the inadequate industry driven SFI forest certification scheme to paper sourced from responsibly managed forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Click here to see who’s the apple of our eye and who gets detention…
Also notable this year is the addition of paper distributors Unisource and United Stationers and other big box retailers including Walmart and Target that sell a lot of office paper bringing the total number of companies surveyed up to a cool dozen. We have also included the new categories of forest protection leadership and climate change in our analysis. Overall we are pleased to report strong progress among these additional companies as well. Both Unisource and United Stationers have announced new environmental policies and Target and Walmart are beginning to address paper issues as well.
Through measuring each company’s environmental performance on important issues like protection of endangered forests, commitment to FSC certified and recycled papers and the conversion of natural forests to , our Green Grades report card has become a powerful framework for pushing the big paper sellers to compete with each other to improve their own practices. For instance Office Depot has moved their highest volume “green” office paper from 10 to 30% to achieve a leadership position with this offering. Others have dropped contracts with basedo ntheir long history of forest destruction in our region.
Your support has been critical to make sure paper companies are held accountable for their forest management practices. Thanks for helping us start the greening of the office supply sector
FedEx Office & Office Depot Earn Top Marks on Paper; Amazon.com & PaperlinX Receive F’s in 3rd Annual Green Grades Report Card
Office Supply Sector Making Strides Toward FSC, Away from World’s Most Destructive Paper Companies
Companies active in the multi-billion dollar office supply sector got their report cards today, and while FedEx Office and Office Depot shored up their brands with impressive ‘green’ grades, companies like PaperlinX and Amazon.com came up short on critical environmental factors, earning less than a ‘D’ grade in each of the report card’s six categories.
Download the report card here: http://www.forestethics.org/green-grades-09
Since 2007, environmental groups ForestEthics and Dogwood Alliance have collaborated on the Green Grades office supply report card to inform American consumers and large purchasers of office supply products about which companies’ paper practices safeguard the environment and the world’s forests.
“Companies like FedEx Office, Unisource, Office Depot, United Stationers, and Target have used their purchasing power to stop the purchase of paper from some of the world’s most destructive companies,” said Daniel Hall of ForestEthics. “Unfortunately, companies like Xpedx and Amazon.com continue to fund forest destruction. And while Wal-Mart has made great strides on other environmental factors, they fall short on their paper practices.”
This year’s grades reflect that more companies recognize the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as the most authoritative and credible forest certification system. Several companies are shifting their purchasing toward FSC-certified paper—and away from forest sources certified by the industry-driven Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification scheme. SFI’s reputation for crafting certifications to fit a destructive industry status quo has increasingly called into question its viability as a symbol of sustainability.
This year’s report card also finds the sector moving away from bad actors including , a company notorious for reckless forest conversion and Endangered Forest logging in the Southern US, and also Asia Pulp & Paper, a company that continuously courts controversy for destroying endangered wildlife habitat and indigenous communities in Indonesia. Additionally, several companies have made efforts to avoid paper sourced from important caribou habitat in the Canadian Boreal Forest, the world’s largest terrestrial ecosystem, including forests logged by Abitibi-Bowater.
In a special ‘Greenwash’ section, paper wholesalers Xpedx and PaperlinX are called out for making boasts about their sustainability positions that are not borne out by the facts, and that mislead customers who are looking to green their businesses, supply chains, and personal consumption.
“When environmental laggards exaggerate or distort claims of being green, they undercut the hard-earned achievements of the companies whose values are demonstrably greener than the rest,” said Andrew Goldberg of Dogwood Alliance. “But a number of companies in this report card talk a green game while supporting destructive paper companies like and hiding behind less than credible certifications like those of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.”
Dogwood Alliance is the only organization in the Southern United States holding corporations accountable for the impact of their industrial forestry practices on our forests and communities. In addition to holding the office supply industry accountable to their environmental commitments, Dogwood Alliance is working to stop the destructive practices of the paper packaging sector. Visit dogwoodalliance.org for more information.
ForestEthics, a nonprofit with staff in Canada and the United States, recognizes that individual people can be mobilized to create positive environmental change—and so can corporations. Armed with this unique philosophy, ForestEthics has secured the protection of more than 65 million acres of Endangered Forests. Visit www.ForestEthics.org for more information. # # #
Companies active in the multi-billion dollar office supply sector got their report cards today, and while FedEx Office and Office Depot shored up their brands with impressive ‘green’ grades, companies like PaperlinX and Amazon.com came up short on critical environmental factors, earning less than a ‘D’ grade in each of the report card’s six categories.
Click here for the press release and here for the 2009 Green Grades Report Card.
Intern Vinay Lehkaraju on his experience this summer at Dogwood Alliance…
I just finished the last week of this know-how and awakening internship. It has almost been 2 months since I started my internship in a completely different field from my normal field of study. Now it is time for me to look back and regroup with my thoughts on what I take away from this internship.
· I started as a novice in the environmental field. The passion at Dogwood Alliance for working on topics of social impact is infectious. It spreads faster than flu and I was one of the victims. I learned what it takes to effectively campaign against unethical corporate practices by working on the Green Grades report. This report holds large corporations (Walmart, Office Max, Office Depot, Staples to name a few) responsible for their actions and shows a comparative analysis on how each company is pitted against one another on critical environmental issues (endangered forests, chain of custody, carbon content, recycle content, etc). Watch out when this report hits the stands later this week!
· Forecastle experience: How often do you get to attend a music festival in your internship? In my case, I do! The experience of tabling in the festival, meeting with fellow members from different organizations, volleying questions from smart -curious passer-byes and reaching out to a larger audience was a great experience. One conversation which I remember so distinctly was when this young girl walked up to the table, wanting to know more about Dogwood Alliance and its activities and after appraising her of all she had asked for I ended up with ‘I hope you would sign this petition and make a difference…’ She stared and me and corrected ‘I hope..no…I SHOULD be the word’. Then it dawned upon me that what Dogwood does is- the distinguished service of converting hopes into realities. When love and skill work together, expect a change to be made and advocating such a change is the hallmark of a dedicated and passion team striving to protect US Southern forests.
· Climate: A lot of people know that the world is speaking of drastically changing climate conditions. With a lot of green house gases being emitted, climate concerns are the usual coffee table discussions for world leaders today. No G8 or World Summit is complete without addressing issues related to climate and signing policies calling for more action to stop further deterioration. While working on a climate report, I was exposed to a lot of case studies, industrial impacts on climate and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) models. It is interesting to note that paper mill activities like ditching, draining, conversion of wetlands to pine plantations, etc also have an impact on climate. Southern forests have long been victims of such disastrous actions and going forward issues relating to climate are all but obvious to have roots here. Such reports not only create awareness among the common man, but justify strong actions against corporations breaching the human code of conduct of violating gifted resources.
My internship has been an enriching experience in terms of learning, networking and sharing passion and belief to make a difference! It has reaffirmed my thoughts that success comes through hard work, but more than hard work it is the frame of mind, the desire, the determination and the perseverance that leads one to success- and Dogwood Alliance is that true example.
Today’s radio commentary from Jim Hightower on GE Trees maybe coming to the South…
Jim Hightower Slams GE Trees!
Jim Hightower: (Listen to Hightower’s commentary)
Here’s a great idea: Let’s bring into our country a genetically-engineered, non-native tree that is known to be wildly invasive, explosively flammable, and insatiably thirsty for ground water. Then let’s clone thousands of these living firecrackers and plant them in forested regions across seven Southern states, allowing them to grow, flower, produce seeds, and spread into native environments.
Yes, this would be irresponsible, dangerous, and stupid – but apparently “Irresponsible, Dangerous, and Stupid” is the unofficial slogan of the U.S. Department Agriculture. In May, with little consideration of the devastating consequences for our native environment, USDA cavalierly rubberstamped a proposal by a profiteering corporation named ArborGen to do all of the above.
Substantially owned by , ArborGen shipped tissue from Brazilian eucalyptus trees to its New Zealand laboratories, where it was genetically altered to have more cellulose. New Zealand, however, outlaws plantings of genetically-engineered crops, so ArborGen sought out a more corporate-compliant country: Ours. The engineered eucalyptus was waved right into the good ol’ USA to be cloned, and it’s now awaiting final approval for outdoor release in our land.
This has happened with practically no media coverage or public participation. It is happening solely because a handful of global speculators hope to profit by making ethanol from cellulose-enhanced eucalyptus – never mind that their self-aggrandizement would put America’s native forests in danger of irreversible contamination by these destructive, invasive Frankentrees. This is Jim Hightower saying… Luckily, several scrappy grassroots groups have mobilized to bring common sense and public pressure to bear on USDA. For updates and action items, visit http://stopgetrees.globaljusticeecology.org/. Thanks to the Stop GE Trees campaign for making this story happen and getting permission for re-post.
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