Yesterday, a broad based coalition of environmental and conservation organizations representing millions of people in the US submitted a letter to KFC asking the company to end its support for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) paper certification scheme. The letter is in response to a recent initiative announced by KFC that promotes its paper packaging as green because it is certified by the SFI.
In a bold commitment to forests, Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific (GP) has announced that it will not purchase trees from Endangered Forests and Special Areas, or from new pine plantations established at the expense of natural hardwood forests. The policy statement was developed in consultation with environmental groups Dogwood Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Rainforest Action Network. While GP’s new forest policy applies to all of its operations, as a first step in implementing its commitment on Endangered Forests and Special Areas, GP worked with the environmental groups and scientists to identify 11 Endangered Forests and Special Areas totaling 600,000 acres in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Eco-Region, as well as 90 million acres of natural hardwood forests in the Southern region. Endangered Forests and Special Areas in other regions will be mapped in a similar process, over the coming years.
Major office supply companies and retailers received their report cards today, and while the sector saw overall progress on critical sustainability issues such as Endangered Forest protection, several prominent brands continue bad habits that harm the world’s forests, air, and water.
Now in its 4th year, the Green Grades report card informs American consumers and large purchasers of paper products on what companies are doing—or not doing—to safeguard the environment and the world’s forests.
An alliance of conservation organizations today sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its approval of open-air field tests of a genetically engineered (GE) hybrid of eucalyptus tree across the southern United States. The permit, issued to a company called ArborGen, which is a joint initiative of International Paper, MeadWestvaco and Rubicon, was approved May 12 with minimal environmental review. It authorizes the experimental planting and flowering of a new, genetically engineered hybrid on 28 secret sites across seven southern states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.
Yesterday the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service issued its decision to approve the mass-release of over a quarter of a million GE eucalyptus trees across seven states in the U.S. South (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina), despite overwhelming public opposition.
