Companies Agree to 'Go Old Growth Free'
© 2000 Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment, Montreal & Toronto
via EarthVision Environmental News
September 6, 2000
For more information contact Don Huff, Environmental Economics International (EEI), Toronto, ph. (416) 972-7404. Visit the website at http://www.oldgrowthfree.com.
MONTREAL -- Sixteen Canadian companies, including Bell Canada, Kinko's Printing, Roots and the Citizens Bank of Canada, have agreed to stop buying lumber and pulp forest products from ancient forests such as in British Columbia, Russia, and Brazil. The agreement was achieved through the "Markets Initiative" program created by Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Forest Action Network and the Friends of Clayoquat Sound (BC) as a form of market pressure to stop the forest industry from logging the last of the 20 percent old growth forests remaining in the world.
Bell Canada's letter to the Markets Initiative said, "it is our intention to favour those wood based product suppliers who will have adopted sustainable practices which do not contribute to the destruction of irreplaceable natural treasures such as the ancients forests."
Other companies that have signed on include The Body Shop, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Clairol Canada, Communicopia, Happy Planet Food, Hollyhock, Husky Injection Molding, Chesterman Property Group, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Renewal Partners, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and Shared Vision Magazine.
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