Wal-Mart Buying Illegal Russian Timber for Products Sold in US Market

US based retail giant Wal-Mart is the subject of a detailed and lengthy report released earlier this month by environmental watchdog group The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The report alleges numerous Chinese companies producing wood furniture including baby cribs for Wal-Mart are buying illegally harvested Russian timber that is destroying critical forest habitats.

The report includes multiple undercover investigations where EIA staff posed as timber buyers and company representatives looking for a manufacturer for their products. They approached companies actively producing products for Wal-Mart for the US market and found nearly all of the wood used in production was from illegal Russian sources.

The report claims companies producing products for Wal-Mart say the retail giant is aware of the source but turns a blind eye in favor of reducing production costs. By not taking any substantive action to address the problem Wal-Mart is indirectly encouraging the practice to continue.

The EIA report can be downloaded here.

Sears Sharper Image Spiegel Top Forest Naughty List

Forest Ethics and its Catalog Cutdown campaign have released its annual Naughty and Nice list which grades catalog senders on environmental paper practices.

Chicago-based Sears Holdings Corporation, with catalog offerings including Sears, Lands’ End and the recently acquired K-Mart, ranks among the top catalog producers in North America. Forest Ethics says that the catalogs are made up of trees cut from endangered forests and have “little to no recycled content.”

The group has had a number of successful campaigns against catalog companies. Limited Brands (parent company of Victoria’s Secret, Express, Bath & Body Works, and The Limited), for example, signed a new forest policy following a long Forest Ethics’ campaign.

In its Naughty and Nice list, 21 companies were evaluated according to four criteria: whether or not endangered forests are cut to produce the company’s catalogs; whether the company uses Forest Stewardship Council Certified paper; the amount of post-consumer recycled content in the company’s catalogs; and the extent of the company’s efforts to reduce overall paper consumption.

Patagonia, Williams-Sonoma, Victoria’s Secret (see link above), Dell, Timberland, Crate & Barrel, REI, L.L. Bean, and J. Crew ended up on the nice list.

JC Penney, Macy’s/Bloomingdales, and PC Mall made the checking twice list.

Neiman Marcus, Talbots/J. Jill, OfficeMax, Lands’ End, Eddie Bauer, School Specialty, Sharper Image, Spiegel, and Sears follow up on the naughty list.

Recycline Adds Paperstone Cutting Boards to Product Line

Massachusetts-based Recycline, makers of the Preserve brand of environmentally friendly products mostly made from #5 PP, the company has added two new cutting boards made from Paperstone to its Preserve Kitchen product line.

Paperstone is a material that has been used in green countertops for several years now. "We were also curious to explore a new material and developed a cutting board from Paperstone," said Webb.

The Paperstone cutting boards are available directly from Recycline or at Whole Foods Market in two sizes and are both Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and RainForest Alliance certified made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

Simon and Schuster Greenwashing

A big round of applause to publishing giant Simon and Schuster for their new Paper Policy announced last week.

"Simon and Schuster, Inc., and its employees are committed to publishing in a manner that both respects the environment and helps to preserve the world’s great forest regions for the use and pleasure of future generations."

Sounds great right? Well lets look at some of the steps the company is going to take to fulfill this excellent vision of theirs.

1) For books printed and bound in the United States, Simon and Schuster will endeavor to eliminate (what does this mean????) the use of paper that may contain fiber from endangered and old-growth forest areas. Oh wow thats big of you. Most companies stopped that years ago. Thank you so much!!!!

2) Will increase use of recycled fiber from 10% to 25% or "greater aggregate level" by 2012 - wow excellent.

3) This is the best one: "Where economically practical and subject to its availability and Simon and Schuster's product mix " Simon and Schuster will "endeavor to have at least 10% of its paper Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified by 2012" - this is my favorite of all of their steps towards their grand goal. Lets break this down - ok, so if they can fulfill the three conditions they set on this statement then they'll increase their use of FSC paper to 10% - wow. Give me a break guys.

Their list of steps goes on and on you can read it for yourself here.

Just a tip for Simon and Schuster's future "endeavors" in greenness - guys your steps for improving shouldn't read like a legal document. You can't set conditions on your environmental policy otherwise it becomes meaningless. This is a joke. Work out a policy you can live with, without all the conditions.

Target Archer Farms Packaging FSC Certified

Target Stores Archer Farms brand has recently released new paperboard packaging that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).The new packaging was noticed by one of our contributors at a local Target store. The packaging is appearing on select Archer Farms Organic product lines. We found the packaging for the entire line of Archer Farms Organic cookies (Key Lime White Chocolate pictured) carrying both the FSC Mixed Sources logo and the Green-e logo.

According to Target's 2007 Corporate Responsibility Report, "In 2007, select Archer Farms Organic product lines will convert to a paperboard manufacturer that uses 100 percent wind power. Additionally, this paperboard and manufacturer are certified with the Forestry Stewardship Council."

San Francisco-based Michael Osborne Design (MOD) redesigned Archer Farms packaging several years ago. The redesign featured a French country theme and allowed Target to position its Archer Farms brand as their "premium" store brand and introduce a more basic Target store brand of food items.

It is unknown what other products in the Archer Farms Organic line have the new FSC/Green-e paperboard packaging or who is producing the packaging. Target did not respond to multiple inquires by Sustainable is Good.

FSC/Green-e certified packaging on a store brand product is rare and could signify an increased interest from Target in more sustainable packaging. Previously Sustainable is Good reported on Target's efforts to reduce PVC from the packaging of products in its stores.

via Sustainable is Good