Protest

Ho ho ho

by Kristen Lombardi

This Friday, the Coastal Rainforest Coalition (CRC) -- an environmental group known for taking on US companies with nasty habits -- will give its version of holiday cheer to Staples, Inc.

On December 22, Santa and his merry elves (okay, disguised environmentalists) will pull their sleigh into the parking lot of the original Staples at 1660 Soldiers Field Road. There, they will give the employees something they probably never received before: a case of "tree-free" office paper, all tied up in a bow.

The event is the latest in a new CRC crusade against Staples geared toward curbing the paper industry's contribution to deforestation. Members are pushing the Framingham-based corporation -- the largest office superstore in the world -- to stop selling paper products made from old-growth forests. Instead, they want Staples to sell paper produced from recycled or alternative materials, such as cotton.

"Forest destruction isn't necessary," says Matt Borus, a CRC organizer heading the Boston effort. "It may be established business practice, but it's also very short-sighted."

Though the Staples campaign debuted November 15, it had been brewing for months. Inspiration came last year, when the hardware giant Home Depot bowed to pressure from four years of CRC lobbying and agreed to stop selling old-growth wood. The company now buys lumber logged from sustainable forests. Activists find the ripple effect encouraging: smaller hardware stores are phasing out old-growth wood as well.

The CRC hasn't repeated its success -- yet. But after staging demonstrations at 70 Staples locations, including corporate headquarters, activists elicited a company response. Staples let activists know that it plans to draft a formal paper-purchasing policy that will give preference to suppliers who don't use old-growth wood.

That response hasn't mollified CRC. Says Borus, "It's a first step, but we're calling for a policy that would eliminate [such] suppliers altogether."