Limited Brands, Victoria’s Secret parent company relesased a new policy which could raise environmental standards for the catalog industry.
The company revealed a new policy, unprecedented in its scope, which includes several landmark environmental measures and ensures that the pulp for the company’s catalog paper will not come from Endangered Forests. A new paper contract was also signed in accordance with the new policy.
Said Todd Paglia, Executive Director of ForestEthics, the NGO that ran the compaign, “The steps they’ve taken make up one of the strongest environmental policies to result from a corporate campaign, and we applaud them for it. They’ve set a new standard, one that we expect other major catalog companies to meet or exceed.”
Two years ago, ForestEthics launched a campaign against Limited Brands/Victoria’s Secret and shortly after began discussions with the company. Since then, Limited Brands has increased their use of post consumer waste (PCW) recycled content and been transitioning its clearance catalogs to sustainable paper with 80% PCW recycled content.
New, groundbreaking measures include:
* Limited Brands has partnered with its paper supplier to eliminate all pulp supplied from the Boreal Forest (Alberta’s Rocky Mountain Foothills) and British Columbia (Inland Temperate Rainforest).
* Shifting its catalogs to either 10% PCW or at least 10% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) content during 2007.
* A preference for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, the only credible certification for sustainable logging. Limited Brands has partnered with its supplier to shift four of its mills to FSC.
* A commitment to continual improvement on environmental attributes of catalog paper and paper use. Progress will be audited by an independent third party and made public.
* One million dollars committed to research and advocacy to protect Endangered Forests and ensure leadership in the catalog industry
At issue throughout the discussions and campaign has been the impact of Victoria’s Secret’s catalog production on Canada’s Great Boreal Forest, which contains 25% of the intact, roadless forest remaining in the world. Stretching from Alaska to Canada’s Atlantic coast, the Boreal is a key regulator of global climate, providing one of our first lines of defense against global warming. It is critical habitat for many species, including endangered caribou and half of North America’s songbirds, and provides $93.2 billion a year in ecosystem services like air and water filtration.
Currently, the Boreal is being logged at a rate of two acres per minute, 24 hours a day, and paper production accounts for nearly 50% of that logging. Limited Brands new policy prohibits sourcing paper from Endangered Forests in the Boreal, and provides other measures that will decrease impact on the Boreal as a whole.
ForestEthics’s “Victoria’s Dirty Secret” campaign featured over 750 protests and events, and over a million unique visitors to:
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