Staples Inc., the world s largest and fastest growing office supply retailer with more than a thousand stores nationwide, announced an unprecedented agreement with environmental groups. The agreement will result in sweeping protections for forests in the Southern United States and around the world. Led by the North Carolina-based Dogwood Alliance and California-based ForestEthics, the campaign targeting Staples has come to a successful close after two years. It featured more than 600 protests at Staples stores nationwide, ads featuring southern rock legends R.E.M., and tens of thousands of letters and calls directed to the company s CEO.
Make no mistake, today’s landmark announcement by Staples is a big win for America s vanishing forests in the Southern U.S. where paper production is destroying some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, said Danna Smith, Campaign Director and negotiator for the Dogwood Alliance.
Under Staples new guidelines, an industry first, the company will:
• Achieve an average of 30 percent post consumer recycled content across all paper products;
• Phase out purchases of paper products from endangered forests, including key forests in the Southern US, US National Forests and the Canadian Boreal region; and
• Create an environmental affairs division and report annually on its progress.
The Southern U.S. is the largest paper-producing region in the world with more than 5 million acres of forests destroyed each year to feed paper mills, including those of International Paper, Staples largest supplier. Environmentalists claim that Staples commitment to increase the average recycled content in its paper products has created a mandate from the market for companies like International Paper to rely more on recycled fiber and less on destroying the South s forests.
This historic agreement positions Staples as the environmental leader in the office supply market and sets a new standard for its competitors. The environmentalists are working to create a chain reaction in the market place, similar to the one that Home Depot triggered with their competitors when they agreed to stop selling old-growth forests in their products.
Staples new policy is the beginning of the end of the practice of destroying endangered Southern forests to make paper. If Staples competitors such as Office Max, Office Depot, and Corporate Express, do the right thing and follow Staples example, our forests can be protected for future generations, said Danna Smith.
According to the US Forest Service, there are more endangered forests in the Southern U.S. than anywhere in the nation.
We very much need paddlers willing to monitor forests within the watersheds of their favorite paddling streams! We train! Contact Cielo Sand cielo@dogwoodalliace.org or you can obtain additional information on our website www.dogwoodalliance.org under Programs / Forest Watch.
Cielo Sand
ForestWatch Director
Dogwood Alliance
POB 87, Sale Creek,TN 37373
423-332-7391