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As You Sow's Corporate Social Responsibility Program has already established
itself as a leader in encouraging environmentally responsible behavior.
The program led a group of socially responsible investors in asking
Home Depot, the world's largest retailer of old-growth lumber, to consider
phasing out sales of old growth wood.
A shareholder resolution initiative managed by As You Sow received
the support of 11.8% of all shareholders (113 million shares) at the
company's annual meeting in May 1999. We personally contacted 150 of
the top institutional investors of Home Depot stock with the message
that it was possible for the company to protect the world's dwindling
endangered forest areas and to preserve its good name and long-term
earnings at the same time. This result was more than double the 5% average
support that such resolutions routinely receive at annual meetings of
publicly traded companies. A coalition of environmental activists was
also pressuring the company to phase out sales of old-growth wood.
Three months later Home Depot announced it would indeed phase out sales
of wood products from endangered forest areas by the end of 2002. As
part of a new timber purchasing policy the company also agreed to:
- Give preference to the sale of timber certified as well managed
by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) wherever possible.
- Find and promote ways to use wood more efficiently.
- Promote and support alternatives to wood products.
- Ensure that timber suppliers are in compliance with existing laws
and regulations
We support this comprehensive approach that seeks to make up for the
loss of old-growth sales by promoting alternatives to virgin wood products
and to find ways to use wood more efficiently. The success of this effort
demonstrates the potential of focused efforts by proponents of Corporate
Social Responsibility to effect positive changes in policies and practices
at publicly held companies.
Our program is involved in a number of efforts to build on the framework
of this successful effort at Home Depot. We believe other companies
have much work to do to achieve environmental sustainability and resource
efficiency.
Post-consumer wastepaper continues to choke our landfills and incinerators.
There is no shortage of wastepaper and P&G should be using as much of
it as possible. In our view, the best way to make good on your pledge
to prevent or reduce the environmental impact of your products would
be to establish a comprehensive recycling strategy, which would include
concrete goals for recycled paper content and an aggressive strategy
for achieving them.
A recent report by the WorldWatch Institute found that because of soaring
consumption, increases in the overall generation of paper waste have
outpaced any growth in recycling. The report, Paper Cuts: Recovering
the Paper Landscape, contains some sobering facts. One-fifth of all
wood harvested in the world ends up in paper; it takes between 2 and
3.5 tons of trees to make a ton of paper; pulp and paper are the fifth
largest industrial consumer of energy in the world and use more water
per ton than any other product.
The report concludes that enhanced efforts by businesses, the largest
consumers of wood fiber, to reduce paper use, improve papermaking efficiency,
and expand the use of non-wood or "tree-free" materials could cut global
consumption of wood fiber by more than half by reducing paper consumption
in industrialized countries, while allowing growth in developing countries
to meet basic needs.
A key element in a commitment to environmentally sustainable practices
would be setting goals for recycled content in paper products and then
using your firm's considerable skills and purchasing clout to find the
ways to get there. We would be very happy to work with you to develop
such a policy.
In addition to the information requested above, we would very much
appreciate receiving an overview of the company's commitments to the
use of recycled content and what progress has been made in that regard
to date.
Recycled Content Goals
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