Dogwood Alliance

In 2000, Dogwood Alliance teamed up with San Francisco-based ForestEthics (www.forestethics.org) in creating The Paper Campaign (www.thepapercampaign.com) to protect forests by working in the marketplace to change the way paper is made in the US. Through this effort, we seek systemic change throughout the paper industry and have targeted the largest retail paper sellers in the US - office super stores like Staples, Office Depot, Office Max and others.

• Phase out products originating from endangered forests, including endangered forests in the Southern US, the Canadian Boreal and US National Forests
• Immediately commit to increasing the average post consumer recycled content in all paper products to 30% and set a goal for achieving an average of 50% post consumer recycled content in all paper products
• Work with suppliers to end unsustainable forestry practices such as the conversion of forests to plantations and to ensure any virgin wood fiber comes from well-managed forests

Staples Campaign Victory!

Office Depot Campaign Victory!

Office Max Campaign Victory!

Fall 2007 Report Card

Green Grades, A Report Card on the Paper Practices of the Office Supply Sector

In the fall of 2006, Dogwood Alliance along with ForestEthics conducted a comprehensive survey of the 5 largest office supply companies, Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Corporate Express and FedEx Kinko’s.  The survey looked at the current environmental policies and practices of the five major office supply retailers.  Now we are pleased to report that our work has led to significant progress by three of the five companies we surveyed.  

Though these three companies have made progress, there are still many areas in which all five companies can and should improve.  This report card summarizes the current polices and practices of each company.  The full report is available for those interested in a more detailed analysis.

Staples Campaign Victory!

On November 12, 2002, Dogwood Alliance joined office supply giant Staples Inc. in a joint press conference to announce the company's public release of landmark environmental paper procurement policy. This announcement market the end of a two-year campaign led by Dogwood Alliance and our partner ForestEthics and involving dozens of local, regional and national groups and thousands of individuals. Collectively, we generated over 600 demonstrations, 15,000 postcards, thousands of phone calls to the corporate headquarters and regional offices, hundreds of letters from concerned citizens, coverage in more than 10 national media outlets and over 50 local media outlets, introduced a shareholder's resolution, generated a letter to the CEO signed by over 150 religious leaders, and produced a public service announcement with the rock band R.E.M. This campaign victory is testament to the power of citizens joining together to demand corporate environmental accountability.

• Achieve an average of 30% post consumer recycled content across all paper products
• Phase out purchases of paper products from endangered forests, including key forests in the Southern US, U.S. National Forests, and the world's last remaining ancient forests such as the Boreal forests of Canada
• Report annually to the public on its progress toward reaching these goals, and
• Create an environmental affairs division headed by a senior executive reporting to Staples CEO

Monitoring Staples Progress

Since then, Dogwood Alliance has been working closely with Staples on the implementation of its commitment. On November 20, 2003, Staples reported its progress toward achieving the goals it set forth its environmental policy.

Staples reported that it has increased the average amount of post consumer recycled content in all paper products to 26.6%, introduced thousands of new products with post consumer recycled content, and set benchmarks for its suppliers in Indonesia. In addition, in 2003, Staples publicly opposed the Bush Administration's exemption of the Tongass National Forest from protections granted to road less areas in U.S. National Forests. Additionally, the company has identified the Southern forest region as a priority area for the implementation of its policy, due to the adverse impact caused by paper production and the important ecological values of these forests. While this is a first step, Staples has a long way to go to ensure adequate protection for the world's endangered forests and we will continue to monitor its progress and assist in the implementation of its environmental commitment.

According to Staples, its collective environmental business efforts have resulted in meaningful environmental benefits since November 2002, including:

Office Depot Campaign Victory!

Office Depot Announces Commitment to protect Global Endangered Forests

When Office Depot released an environmental policy on Earth Day of last year that failed to provide protection for endangered forests, a grassroots campaign was launched. The announcement today by Office Depot of a revised environmental policy is the successful result of a year-long grassroots effort challenging the company to make a clear policy commitment to protect endangered forests!

In its revised policy, Office Depot seeks to influence the conservation of forests and bio-diversity through using its purchasing power to influence its suppliers (the timber companies). It commits to:

• Identify endangered forests, including forests that are rare and vulnerable, contain exceptional bio-diversity values, are subject to unsustainable management, or where illegal logging is occurring
• Engage in landscape level conservation planning, including the establishment of ecological reserves
• Work with its suppliers to end the conversion of natural forests to plantations
• Work with its suppliers to prevent the use of genetically modified trees
• Increase its overall post-consumer recycled content to at least 30%

Over the past year, activists held over a hundred demonstrations on two days of actions, made hundreds of phone calls, sent thousands of postcards, bird-dogged CEO Bruce Nelson, sent the company an international coalition letter calling for the protection of endangered forests, signed by over 200 organizations, critiqued Office Depot's policy at the Office Products International conference, engaged in shareholder advocacy led by Calvert, Green Century Funds, Trillium, and As You Sow, and spread information about the campaign in a 20 city tour about forest protection.

Office Depot revised its environmental paper policy, and all involved should take a moment to celebrate your victory for the forests!

The next phase of the campaign is to watchdog the implementation of Office Depot's purchasing practices to ensure that Office Depot's commitment results in protections for forests on the ground, including in the Southern U.S., the Canadian Boreal, and endangered US national forests. We need your help so we can hold Office Depot to this policy.

The step taken by Office Depot, in combination with many other corporate commitments, is part of a broader effort to transform the paper industry away from the destruction of endangered forests, practices of over harvesting, and the conversion of natural forests to plantations and toward ecologically sound paper alternatives such as post-consumer recycled content and agricultural waste.

OfficeMax announces Environmental Paper Procurement Policy!

Today, OfficeMax released a new environmental paper policy which will reduce the company’s impact on forests and further bolster the recycled paper industry. The company now joins its competitors, Office Depot and Staples, with standing environmental policies.

And this could not have been achieved without your support, from the thousands of postcards and emails you sent to the company to the time spent out in front of OfficeMax stores to your financial contributions which provided us with the resources we needed to continue the fight. Thank you!

This commitment caps a seven-year effort by environmental groups led by Dogwood Alliance and ForestEthics to green the office supply industry. In less than a decade, the office supply sector has now transitioned from one of the most environmentally destructive industries to one that has begun to challenge the world’s largest paper companies to improve their forestry practices.

Now of course it is up to the company to prove that action speaks louder than words and to leverage this policy for real on the ground protection for the endangered forests of the Southern US.

We hope and believe that this company can and will follow through on this commitment. Here is an excerpt from OfficeMax’s press release that leads us to that conclusion:

“OfficeMax has notified its suppliers about areas of concern to two environmental groups; the Cumberland Plateau, specifically identified by Dogwood Alliance, and First Nations’ concerns about the impact of fiber originating from Canadian forests, an issue specifically identified by ForestEthics. OfficeMax will continue to urge its suppliers to resolve these matters through their supply chains.”

We will continue to work with the company to ensure that it follows through on its commitment. Thank you once again for supporting us in our work to defend and protect the magnificent forests of the Southern US.

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