Update from the Lousiville Press Conference at KFC…
This morning we held the first press conference in Louisville, Kentucky
at KFC to kickoff the Southern Exposure Tour and new website about the fast food packaging campaign–www.nofreerefills.org . Louisville
happens to be the hometown of Yum! Brands, parent company of Taco Bell, KFC,
Long John Silvers, Pizza Hut and A&W, so it was exciting to kickoff the
Southern Exposure Tour here. The Yum!
companies have made the list when it come to bad packaging choices, along with McDonalds,
Bojangles, Jack in the Box, Quiznos and Wendy’s.
That’s right, all of those companies are buying paper
packaging from Southern forests. To take
action and send a message to those companies, go to www.nofreerefills.org . The website will be fully up and running next
week.
Despite the rain, we had a good time at the press conference
today. We had some great speakers,
including Gary Heine of Heine Brothers Coffee and Tom Windham, a local
community member in Louisville.
Gary
called on Yum! Brands to make simple choices like better packaging that create
a more sustainable world. Gary also gave great
examples of how he has made choices within his own business to promote
sustainability and has even created a non-profit organization through his
company called Breaking New Grounds. Heine Brothers Coffee is well known
throughout the community as leader in sustainability, with several coffee shops
in the Louisville
area. In fact, I’m writing this from
Heine Brothers now!
Tom Windham, a long time supporter of Dogwood Alliance, avid
outdoorsman and local businessman also called out the fast food industry for
their terrible packaging choices. “Southern
forests are too important to be wasted for fast food packaging,” he said this morning.
As an outdoorsman, Tom is well aware of
the beauty, biodiversity and outdoor recreation Southern forests provide.
All of the speakers were apt to point out that simple
choices and creative solutions can reduce excess destruction of Southern
forests while still allowing the level of convenience we’ve come to expect.
I’ll post photos and video next week.
Off to Virginia!
Eva Hernandez
Organizing Director
Dogwood Alliance
