Forest Ethics' "Naughty and Nice" List of Treekillers
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 12. 7.07
It is only the 7th and we are tired of Christmas references. Now Forest Ethics has released its "naughty and nice" list with Sears coming in dead last."In the nearly five years that we've been working to transform the environmental practices of the catalog industry, we have seen impressive results," said Ginger Cassady of ForestEthics, adding that "Leaders like LL Bean and Victoria's Secret prove that there is no reason why laggards like Sears cannot meet an environmentally sensible standard."
From the press release:
Whereas only three companies--including Dell and Williams-Sonoma--achieved satisfactory scores in the 2005 scorecard, this year's scorecard shows an emerging trend toward more sustainable practices, with the nine companies on Santa's "nice list" now matching the nine on the "naughty list."
Among the highlights:
* Naughty. With the release of its 188-page Wishbook catalog following a 13-year hiatus, Sears is growing more destructive to Endangered Forests at a time when forests, freshwater sources, and wildlife are most threatened. Sears gets a big lump of coal for its non-efforts this year, having done little to indicate that its 20th Century mindset will be reset for a 21st Century era of sustainable business.
* Nice! Patagonia has crafted a paper policy that backs up their reputation for savvy sustainability. They earn a caribou for each of the four criteria evaluated, which is fitting given what these policies will do for caribou whose Canadian Boreal habitat continues to be damaged by companies that don't make the grade. ::Forest Ethics PDF of scorecard here.
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My fiance and I have actually had quite a bit of trouble with Patagonia's catalog service. We're both ski instructors so we receive a special discount from Patagonia (called a pro-deal). As we live together, we thought it'd be nice to save paper and opt to only receive one catalog. The problem is, you cannot join the pro program without signing up for the catalog.
We also happen to live near a Patagonia outlet store. We'd like to receive email announcements about their sales. You cannot receive email announcements unless you sign up for the *regular* Patagonia catalog. But since we already receive the pro catalog we don't want the regular catalog (they're pretty much identical except for a little slip of paper inserted into the pro catalog).
Due to Patagonia's poorly designed software system (customer tracking system) we'd need to sign up for four catalogs in order to receive all of the information and benefits. No matter how much recycled paper you use the catalog this is still a stupid waste of resources.
Here's a great new website for getting yourself off catalog lists:
www.catalogchoice.org
A solution is the planting of indusrial hemp. It makes the best biodiesel and the remaining long/strong fibers make beter paper, cloth, silk, and composite termite rot resistant building materials. Need I say it grows as a weed and Western KY was setteled primary to establish Hemp plantations. Eliminates the need to clear cut pulp forests and it adds to American Energy Independence! Legalise Industrial Hemp! Just say no to ME oil!
It would make a lot of sense for Sears to stop sending out catalogs, and start relying solely on non-paper advertising (TV and internet). Who actually reads those catalogues? Most people just recycle them anyway. They're almost as bad as the supermarkets who print massive numbers of flyers, even though everybody knows that most people throw them out.