Wanna see the kleercut campaign in action? Check out Flickr,  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/kimberlyclark/

Here's a coming attraction . . .

Have you been noticing Kimberly-Clark products in public bathrooms at restaurants, stores, movie theaters, etc? Wondering what to do about these sightings? Why not document them? I’ve mentioned this aspect of the K-C campaign before, but now that many of you are on some kind of school break, well, now’s a perfect time to actually do it!
This winter break, become a Kimberly-Clark-PI (K-C PI) and snoop in bathrooms around the world. K-C PIs are on the lookout for forest destroyers, namely (of course) Kimberly-Clark products. You can be a KC-PI by tracking and exposing businesses, chains, corporations, and other public and private institutions that are financially supporting K-C.
    Sound engaging? A good use of your time? Here are the steps:

1) Find the Forest Crime
Keep your eyes peeled for businesses and institutions using K-C brands, including Kleenex brands (in Canada) as well as Scott, Viva, and Cottonelle (in the USA).

2) Record the Forest Crime
Snap photos and send in the contact information for any business or institution that you discover is using K-C brands of tissue products. We’re talking national chains, not your mom-and-pop businesses (but those, of course, you should get to join the Forest Friendly 500).

3) Submit your evidence (so many ways!)
Online: www.kleercut.net/en/evidence
Email:  ickc@kleercut.net,
Fax: (Canada) (416) 597-8422 or (USA) (415) 255-9201
Mail:
(Canada)
Kimberly-Clark Private Eye
Greenpeace Canada
250 Dundas St. West, Suite 605
Toronto Ontario, Canada
M5T 2Z5
Or
(USA)
Kimberly-Clark Private Eye
Greenpeace USA
75 Arkansas St.
San Francisco CA, Canada
94107

4) Expose the Forest Crime
Greenpeace will use this information to track and target companies and chains that are using K-C products. We will be pushing them to break their contracts with K-C and stop purchasing tissue products made of ancient forests.

That’s all I’ve got for now- have a great holiday, and see you in the new year!

    I’ve been looking at all these blogs and besides these weird spammy ones (why are they posting on the Greenpeace site? Is nothing sacred?), there’s also a somewhat common theme. All over the place, it’s “I want to help, what can I do to help?” Or, “The earth’s a mess, what can be done?” Or, “How do I make a difference?” You all want to DO something.
    The good news is-- whether you realize it or not-- you people are making a difference.  Every time you decide not to buy a box of Kleenex, you’re sending a message to Kimberly-Clark; every time you tell your friends or relatives about the Kleercut campaign, you’re spreading the word and helping to make a change. Every time you join cyber activists around the world and take a cyberaction, you’re making your environmental views known; every time you forward that cyber action on to your friends . . . well, you get the idea. Keep up the great work. You’re already involved; you’re already doing stuff.
    Want to do even more? Here are some thoughts about getting more involved in the new year:
1) Join the Ancient Forest Defenders list to get the latest news on the Kleercut campaign (enter your email in the box on the right side of http://kleercut.net/en/)
2) Have a website? Link to the Kleercut site with a banner: http://kleercut.net/en/banners
3) And-- I know I've already suggested these, but they're such good opportunities, I just can't help myslef!--  here are 2 just for the students:
    * Join the student network, http://members.greenpeace.org/students/. It’s a great support system for students interested in working on campaigns at their school.
    * Apply to the Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT). Go here: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/greenpeace-organizing-term for more information about the term. (Unfortunately, the spring semester deadline has past, but you can start thinking about your application for the fall!) After you read all about the Term, I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to you that some of the most active student network campuses are the ones that have GOT alumni.  

 

Hey, remember Kyle, who's working on the K-C campaign? Well check out what he just did: 

Rice University Removes Kleenex Products Due To Environmentally Destructive Forest Policies

It’s the beginning of the end of the year. A perfect time for snow (or rain here), holiday movies, hats, scarves, shopping, and . . . yessss—the end of the year best of list! Because I don’t like to be left out (see blog about holiday gifts), I’ve compiled a best of list too. Here it is, a collection of what we’ve learned, taken from my interviews with people working on the K-C campaign at their school. We have advice from Riley, American University’s Environmental Coordinator, tips from Kyle, suggestions from Alison and Jonathan at Skidmore, and hints from Heather and David at the University of Chicago. I hope this “Holiday Compilation” (ok, I am really going too far) will inspire you to start your own K-C campaign (or any environmental campaign) in the new year.

Tip #1:
Pick strategic targets for your campaign.
Riley Neugebauer, American University’s (AU) Environmental Coordinator councils what worked really well in the AU campaign was finding a target who had purchasing power over the campus, but who wasn’t the president or a major senior level administrator. Riley points out that at AU “there was no way we could go straight to the President and have him sign this letter regarding K-C. Everything that you try to push through at that level of leadership takes months, years, to succeed.” So AU decided to target the Director in Facilities Management. At AU, this person manages the contracts with the Housekeeping services, so he has some amount of control over AU’s paper vendors and contracts. And viola, AU had the first K-C off Campus letter of the K-C campaign!

Tip #2:
Work with your administration.
Many interviewees mentioned how important working with their administration was for their campaign.
Kyle notes that on his campus, “Everything we do [in the K-C campaign] that involves the administration is through our campus Sustainability Planner. He’s the best resource we could ask for. Alison from Skidmore agrees. “Talking to the administrators has been the most effective [tactic] so far. They have been very supportive of our efforts and our conversations with them have lead to them doing more research by themselves and coming back to us for more discussion.” Riley concurs. She believes campus activists shouldn’t get into the mindset that “every administrator and every person in power [on their campuses] is evil.” Instead, students should “identify champions within the administration to help them, and act as a liaison between students and other administrators.” This can be the sustainability coordinator, but it can also be interested staff.

Tip #3:
Engage others (students, the general public) in unusual, imaginative ways to spread the word about the campaign and to keep up interest in the campaign.
Kyle began a Facebook group for the campaign at his school. This helps to spread the campaign by word-of-mouth (or click-of-the-mouse?). At the University of Chicago, Heather and David did street theater (their version of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax—the bad guy is a tissue box). Additionally, Heather and David are planning creative ways to get their message across to a K-C board member who they haven’t been able to engage by phone. Last time we talked, they were looking into bike messengers to drop off a package of signed K-C petitions at her office as well as a singing telegram. As David aptly put it, “To deal with being ignored, we’ve got to make it impossible to be ignored.”

Tip #4:
Remember your power as students!
Straight from Riley: “Institutions are there for students. Rather than feel that your institution owes you the right to park wherever you want, or that it should use plenty of pesticides so the grass is green, you should feel it is your right to make it make changes which are better for our health, for our planet, and for the future economy in dealing with real issues like climate change, a lack of corporate social responsibility, poor forest management, and the loss of biodiversity.”

I try to buy used or make all my Christmas and Hanukah presents (yes, I get to celebrate both; I’m lucky). Sometimes this works great—a sequined sweater from Thrift Town for a best friend who’s stuck in the 80’s (or some other place/time), a collaged box, a handmade frame, a really beautiful old copy of a favorite book for a bibliophile friend. Sometimes, this gift giving technique doesn’t work so well. Hanukahs and Christmases past reveal a few mistakes—“Umm, but Grandma, I thought you would love this ‘70s collared shirt and bowling bag. They’re so you.”
When I can’t make or buy used gifts for these family members, I turn to green gift options. After all, environmentally friendly presents are a great way to remind people to be more conscious of the earth in the coming year, as well as a great way to help people get turned on to products they might not have thought to buy on their own. I’ve listed a few below (some of these, especially the compact fluorescent bulbs, I’ve personally had a lot of success with) , but if you have any other ideas, why not post a comment below?

- A cloth handkerchief— A great way of getting people into the K-C campaign! (If you want a special Kleercut hankie, go to http://kleercut.net/en/, and click the link for the Kleercut handkerchiefs.)
- Recycled paper notebooks
- Compact fluorescent bulbs—Conventional light bulbs waste 85 percent of their energy in heat; compact fluorescent bulbs will save your giftees energy and money on their electric bill.
- A power strip—I know this sounds a little weird, but think about it—energy is used even when appliances are plugged in to sockets (phantom energy), though the appliances may be turned off. A power strip lets you easily eliminate phantom energy.
- Organic clothing—more expensive, but really nice . . .
- Organic foods—Yum.
- A membership to an environmental group—May I suggest Greenpeace?

Here in San Francisco it’s 80 degrees out and sunny, but nonetheless it’s that time of year again. The time of year when nothing’s exempt from corny holiday packaging and for godsake, I’m wearing my winter coat as it’s DECEMBER so I should be wearing it, after all people have Christmas wreaths and trees up already.  If I don’t get slapped with jury duty this week, you can expect some festival holiday blogs from me (as I said, corny holiday packaging everywhere! How can I help myself?). Yep, you can look forward to a holiday gift guide as well as some New Year’s resolutions help. So, see you soon (I hope!).

Alison, the treasure of Skidmore College’s Environmental Action Club (EAC) is inspired to work for environmental change because she's concerned for the current and future well-being of humans and other forms of life. Jonathan, co-president of the EAC, because he can’t imagine not being part of the solution. Thanks to the EAC’s effective campaign, Skidmore has sent a letter to KC declaring that the College disapproves of the company’s practices. Even though we all disapprove of clearcutting virgin forests to make toilet paper, I’m sure we all can agree that getting this letter was no small feat. After a long Thanksgiving weekend, Jonathan, Alison and I finally met up online. Read on to find out about more about the KC campaign at Skidmore.

Ill_Assist_You [IAY]: My good friend from high school went to Skidmore. She has really fun stories about taking gym but no other stories about college. What’s Skidmore like anyway?
Alison [A]: Skidmore is a small (2,400 undergrad students) private liberal arts college in upstate New York. Skidmore is known for its arts curriculums, though it offers degrees in all major areas of study. Most students live on campus (in dorms or on-campus apartments). We are located in the city of Saratoga Springs, a beautiful tourist destination with a lively downtown area, close rural landscapes, and the Adirondack Mountains a short car ride away.
Jonathan [J]: The student body is politically liberal and thus generally concerned about environmental issues. However, activist/political groups on campus find it difficult to draw people to meetings and events. Because of this, many see Skidmore students as apathetic. Some believe that Skidmore College is lacking in its institutional commitment to sustainability. After many years of talk about recycling, this year we are finally putting significant resources into creating an effective recycling program. There are also a couple of buildings on campus that are being heated by geothermal.

IAY: How did the EAC decide to get involved with the KC campaign?
J: This summer I had the wonderful opportunity of attending a week-long Greenpeace training in Washington D.C. called ChangeIt 06. This is where I heard about the campaign and applied to be the campus coordinator.

IAY:  Have you worked on other campaigns before? If so, how does the KC campaign compare?
A: Yes, I've been involved in student environmental action for 4 years now, and this campaign has been very successful compared to some others I have been involved in.
J: I have worked on many EAC campaigns but no national campaigns until now. Last year, the leadership of the EAC decided to localize our actions. As a general rule, every campaign we work on should be local, as in having direct impact on the Skidmore community. In many cases this rule prevents any involvement in national campaigns. Additionally, we seek to choose campaigns that have lasting and sustained results while being relatively easy to carry out (these types of projects we have coined as “big impact, little effort” projects). The KC campaign is wonderful because it fits our criteria but is still within a national movement. I believe this sort of campaign is significantly more empowering for everyone involved.

IAY: What techniques/tactics have proved effective for you in this campaign?
A: Talking to administrators has been the most effective so far. They have been very supportive of our efforts and our conversations with them have lead to them doing more research by themselves and coming back to us for more discussion. Also, we organized a consumer education campaign which reached a broad audience: we passed out flyers about the Kleercut campaign, collected 330 petition signatures to send to Kimberly-Clark, and handed out free boxes of Seventh Generation Tissues to the first 30 people who signed our petition!

IAY:  What have been some of the highlights of this campaign?
A: Talking to people and educating them about the campaign when we were collecting petition signatures - people were surprised to hear that Kleenex wasn't good, willing to do what they could to help the cause, and overall very supportive. Also, talking to our Director of Purchasing, who is a wonderful lady - she is always interested in the information we bring to her and enthusiastic to find out more.
J: It was also good to see the amazing retention in the EAC committee working on the campaign. The committee for the K-C campaign was 7 or 8 strong at every meeting in our general EAC meetings and in other meetings with the purchasing director. I have also enjoyed working with Lindsey at Greenpeace through each step of the process.

IAY: What have been some of the challenges of this campaign?
A: Dealing with the fact that the institutional products that Skidmore buys from Kimberly-Clark aren't as environmentally-offensive as K-C's consumer products. This has made it difficult to convince decision-makers that boycotting K-C's LEED certified institutional products would help our cause.

IAY: With whom (student groups, professors, faculty, etc) have you been working?
A: Other students in the Environmental Action Club, members of the Campus Environmental Committee, people from the facilities department, the director of purchasing, and the buyer for the campus bookstore.
J: Also the Skidmore Shop, which decided to look into alternative products.

IAY: The activist life never stops— with the KC letter under your belts, the EAC is currently tackling four more projects. What are these projects?
J: One EAC committee put together a Ride Board. Another is working on developing support for a solar panel installation on campus. The 3rd group is focusing on developing a marketing plan for the new recycling program that was instituted just a couple of weeks ago at Skidmore. The last group is looking at ways to reduce paper use on campus. We are pushing for all the library printers to print double sided as well as get IT to change the margins in Word to 1 inch.

 

That's all for now, see you suckers in December!  

 Feel like you missed the activist boat because you weren't chaining yourself to a toilet  in Italy or a bus Washington or perching yourself on those tripod-y things in Ontario? Welll, why not join hundreds (thousands?) of other activists, and take an online action. Click on the link below to send a letter to KC demanding that they meet with us to discuss their destructive forest practices.

http://members.greenpeace.org/action/start/125/

Maybe you don't check out Kleercut.net as often as you  ought. If that's the case, no problem; I'm posting some recent articles from the site on here now. Check it out!!

Everett, Washington. – On the morning of November 13, Greenpeace activists blocked the entrance of Kimberly-Clark's largest mill facility in North America using a bus outfitted as a giant tissue box. For a full nine hours, the activists refused to move. The activists urged Kimberly-Clark to meet with Greenpeace representatives and establishe a timeline to end sourcing wood fiber from logging operations in the Boreal forest.

Two activists locked their arms into the giant tissue box, with a banner between them reading “Kleenex=Ancient Forest Destruction.” The protest is the latest in Greenpeace's campaign to highlight Kimberly-Clark's irresponsible logging practices and continuing deception about these practices to consumers and investors alike. This action follows a blockade set up last week at the company's headquarters in Turin, Italy.

“Time and again, Kimberly-Clark has refused to admit what we have proven to be true -- that they are engaged in the destruction of ancient forests,” said Ginger Cassady, Greenpeace forests campaigner. “Greenpeace is here to expose the company's role in forest destruction. We will stay here until they meet with us and agree to stop destroying our world's oldest and most precious forests.”

The giant tissue box was deployed at the main entrance of the facility which Greenpeace revealed to be a key processing facility for old-growth trees from the Boreal forest. The Boreal forest is considered one of the best defenses against global warming pollution because it stores large amounts of land-bound carbon. When the forest is clearcut for products like Kleenex, the trees and plants release this carbon becoming a significant contributor to global warming pollution. Greenpeace has been actively campaigning to expose and change Kimberly-Clark's practices since 2005.

More than 680 companies have signed up to participate in Greenpeace's “Forest Friendly 500” program and have pledged not to buy Kimberly-Clark brands. Recent Leger Marketing polling shows that over 80 percent of Americans are likely to buy recycled tissue paper products and even pay more to protect ancient forests.
“Clearly, Kimberly-Clark is not concerned about what consumers want or the growing trend of environmentally sustainable marketing,” continued Cassady. “Many companies have implemented policies to protect ancient forests, it's time for Kimberly-Clark to do the same.”

http://kleercut.net/en/

 

In the early morning hours of November 9th, Greenpeace activists confronted Kimberly-Clark at its regional headquarters in Turin, Italy demanding that the company “Stop Flushing Canada’s Boreal forest Down Europe’s toilets."
While activists suspended a massive banner from the rooftop, others locked themselves to toilet bowls outside the office with trees being ‘flushed down’ them, symbolic of the company’s destruction of Canada’s ancient Boreal forest to make toilet paper and other disposable tissue products.

 

Last Friday morning I spoke by phone with Heather, coordinator of the KC campaign for the Chicago area, and David, campus coordinator for the University of Chicago. Heather’s cell phone was passed back and forth, sometimes with background noise, sometimes with cutting out (“we’re in a basement,” Heather explained) but—technical difficulties aside— I got to learn about the work Heather and David have done and are doing to kick KC off Chicago-area campuses.

Ill_Assist_You [IAY]: How did you get involved in this campaign?
Heather [H]: I got involved with the campaign last year through a University of Chicago student who had interned at Greenpeace.
David [D]: When I started working with the campus environmental group [ECO—Environmental Concerns Organization], Heather was already working on this campaign.

IAY: What techniques and activities have you been using/doing at U of C and in the greater Chicago area?
H: Last year we targeted Cafferty [KC board member and Professor Emeritus at U of C]. We did street theater, reenacting The Lorax with a tissue box as the bad guy. We also did a lot of petitioning and tabling. This year, we are working on targeting Linda Johnson Rice [KC board member and president and chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., publishers of Ebony and Jet magazines, based in downtown Chicago]. We’ll do basically the same things as we did with Cafferty, and we will also create a media packet on the campaign to give to Rice.

IAY: What have been some of the challenges of this campaign?
D: One of the challenges is that we were stonewalled by Cafferty last year.
H: We talked to Cafferty once; she said she’d send us information that KC had sent her, but then she never got back to us.
D: This year, we’ve been after Rice. She’s impenetrable by phone, but we’re working on creative ways to deliver our message to her. Some of our ideas are having a bike messenger drop off a package for her and have a singing telegram go up to her office. We’ll make as much noise as possible in front of her office, and distribute fliers to her employees to let them know what KC is doing. To deal with being ignored, we’ve got to make it impossible to be ignored.   

IAY: What’s been the response from people at U of C and in the Chicago area to this campaign?
D: The response on campus has been really good. We’ve got a high response rate to the petitions we asked people to sign—the highest rate I’ve ever had with a campaign. Also, when we did The Lorax demonstration, people walking around the quad joined in, put on silly tree costumes. The trick is to channel this willingness to be involved in the campaign into lasting volunteers. I think people respond to the campaign because it’s hard to find us unreasonable. We’re asking a corporation to be responsible. It resonates that KC is ridiculous; there are no rational grounds for people to object. People also respond to the brochures we’re handing out. The brochures explain the campaign on one side and on the other list legit forest friendly paper products. It makes it easy for people to switch; it’s pragmatic and reasonable.
H: I’ve been talking to other environmentalists in Chicago and they are interested in the campaign. So far the activist community is very responsive.

IAY: What’s your inspiration for doing environmental work?
H: I study geoscience, so there are a lot of logical reasons why it makes sense to be an environmentalist. Drastic climate change will hurt the environment. Also, on a personal level, I really like the environment and I want others to experience it. I’m interested in the connections between environmentalism and human health and environmentalism and environmental justice.
D: I grew up in South Dakota but it wasn’t until I moved to Chicago that I really started to appreciate the environment. After my 1st year in Chicago, I went home and did a lot of camping with my father. I find being in a forest, being near mountains, very moving. I love that these places exist, and that humans and nonhumans experience them. With ECO, I push field trips because I want other people to experience how incredible the earth is. The KC campaign is a great way to protect old growth forests.

 

PS: I'll be posting Lorax photos from Heather soon!!  

Kyle is a former GOTer who in the fall of 06 decided to bring the KC Campaign to his school. Now, in the late fall of 06, his school is almost completely KC free. How did this happen? Read on and find out.  

Ill_Assist_You [IAY]: How did you get involved with this campaign?
Kyle [K]: I was in the GOT in Spring 06. One of the first weeks, we were briefed on the campaign by Richard Brooks [Greenpeace Canada Forest Coordinator].  After some training, we went to Knoxville and organized at the University of Tennessee campus. [KC has an administrative center in Knoxville, TN.] In Knoxville, I spoke with lots of people about the campaign, and by the time I left, felt deeply connected to it. I wanted to continue working on the issue, so over the summer I went to Wisconsin with the summer GOT students and did work there.  Now that I am back at school, I still feel very passionate about the campaign and am doing what I can on my campus.

IAY: Have you worked on other campaigns before?
K: Last fall [05] I worked with Sierra Club to combat the expansion of a landfill in Houston and worked to get a toxic waste site cleaned up.

IAY: With whom are you working on this campaign?
K: There is a handful of students at my school who are very active with the many campus environmental groups, and a number of other students who see this as a good opportunity to do something important. Everything we do [in the KC Campaign] that involves the administration is through our campus Sustainability Planner. He’s the best resource we could ask for.

IAY: What’s going on with the KC campaign on your campus?
K: Our Sustainability Planner talked with the purchaser for our custodial organizations and discovered that the only KC product they used was Kleenex tissues. We found out
that the brand we use for many other products, SCA, is cheaper and is made from recycled fiber. The decision to stop purchasing Kleenex tissue was a no-brainer. However, the university is not KC free—in many labs on campus we use KC’s Kimwipes for cleaning delicate surfaces.

IAY: There’s a KC board member affiliated with your school. How has this affected your campaign?
K: We tried to contact him. We wanted to hear his opinions and explain why we’re doing what we’re doing. The company sent us a copy of KC’s sustainability report, the generic propaganda they give to everyone who asks them about this issue, but we received no actual response from him until this week. He sent me a KC press release that explained how KC was named a leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. This means that the communication is still open, so I requested a meeting with him, and am curious to see if he responds. I’m also going to try for a big media hit. I plan to have a bunch of students on campus do the Kleercut Challenge, show people our school’s statement that we will not use Kleenex tissues, and ask students to sign petitions to our board member. We’re going to try to get into the Houston Chronicle, which would be great because the board member lives in Houston.

IAY: Sounds like you’ve basically accomplished your campaign goals. For the sake of others who are thinking about starting a KC Campaign on their campus, what kinds of techniques have worked really well for you?
K: To get people interested in the campaign, we organized a phone bank and asked students to come to the first meeting. About 50 people showed up. At the first meeting, I acted very dramatic and enthusiastic and showed the Kleercut video. I also created a Facebook group, and continue to spread the message through word-of-mouth. A good percentage of students on campus know about the campaign. This creates a buzz, and when people are asked if they want to take action on the campaign, hopefully they will be a little more excited about it because they have heard about it before.

IAY: What are you future plans?
K: Long term: I want to go to law school to become the most effective advocate for the environment I can be. Shorter term: I’m working on Kleercut and other campus sustainability issues. Very soon, I want to see my campus buy clean energy or carbon credits because right now, we spend about $12- 13 million on energy, and less than 1% of that is renewable. I also want to see a big push for energy conservation and for recycling on campus.  Next semester, I’ll be in Duluth, MN organizing for energy campaigns, and in April I’m going to Antarctica to do research on ice core samples and learn more about global warming. Next fall, I’m going to Buenos Aires, Argentina to learn Spanish and I will try to help Greenpeace Argentina while I’m there.

IAY: Why are you an environmentalist?
K: Because I don’t want to the natural world to be dominated, depleted, or destroyed by the manmade world. The two can, and must, coexist, or the Earth will not be a very good place to live for long. I always think about the big picture, and nothing is as large-scale and all-important as protecting the environment.

A little while ago, I interviewed Lauren who worked on getting  American University to go KC free. In this interview with Noah from Guilford College, the “series” (is 2 blogs a series?) continues. Noah is doing really great work on his campus (read and find out!)-- Guilford is on its way to going KC free. Noah was introduced to the KC campaign as a student in the summer ‘06 GOT program, and though this is his first campaign (besides from working with the College Democrats), this fall, he decided to take the campaign home.

Ill_assist_you [IAY]: Describe Guilford College.
Noah [N]: Guilford College is a small liberal arts school; it is well known and has a reputation for being very liberal. Guilford is a Quaker school and a lot of Quaker aspects show through especially during decision making. Every angle has to be considered and discussed and then come to consensus about the issue. It’s really great though and everyone is very open minded. Plus Guilford is trying to become as green as possible so that helps.

IAY: What’s the current situation at Guilford with this campaign?
N: As of right now, the main KC campaign work is centered around compiling a feasibility report about how realistic it's going to be for Guilford to switch. We've identified Cascades as the product we're switching to and have basically been putting together a proposal to satisfy all the parties interested. The facilities department, student body, religious department, purchasing department, the board of trustees (only to determine if Guilford will publicly take a stand), and our distributor, Diamond Paper. We've been continuously updating the proposal. In the next two weeks, we'll be doing a test run in a men’s bathroom and a women’s bathroom along with an administered survey to determine the student body's opinion which hopefully won't be against it. This is the final piece of information for our report and then it will be presented to all the departments for a consensus.

IAY: You mentioned that you’ve been working with faculty and the business community at Guilford. How did you start this? How has it been going?
N: The purchasing department directed us towards our distributor and the sustainability director mentioned a few companies. But mainly it has been our interaction with Diamond Paper our distributor in determining products and prices. It was sort of frustrating getting their attention and respect though.

IAY: What have been some of the challenges running the campaign at Guilford? How are you overcoming these challenges?
N: Basically the amount of research. There hasn't been any "opposition" just a lot, a lot research. Also, satisfying everyone's stake in the matter is a challenge.

IAY: I see that you have done an action with Greenpeace in Mexico (check out Noah’s blog: http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/noah1/2006/10/11/mexico_1), and I believe that you were at Change It. What inspires you to do environmental work?
N: It’s Sexy, but besides that I want to see a greater respect and understanding of the environment at large. It’s not ours to tamper with, and the more people who understand this, the more healthy the world will become.

IAY: What are your future plans—both for the KC campaign at Guilford and for yourself personally?
N: I want to finish out the KC campaign hopefully with a good result. If it’s a negative result, I want to bring in as many new ideas as possible. For myself, I just want to spend as much time outside as possible.

wanna hear KC campaign updates? I bet you do! I want to too! while I set up massive amounts of interviews with students doing top-notch work (so much work they don't have time for phone interviews???!!), you can look at this photo by Richard Misrach: 

 

 

 

 
The Hidden Life of Paper and Its Impact on the Environment

MEDIA companies have published numerous articles on global warming and greenhouse emissions in recent years. Now, a couple of large publishers are starting to think about their own impact on the environment.

Time Inc. participated in a study published this year by the Heinz Center that calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced over the entire process of publishing Time and In Style.

Other magazine companies, including the Hearst Corporation, now say they are studying the Heinz report to consider the implications for their magazines, and Rupert Murdoch recently announced that the News Corporation is developing a plan to become entirely carbon neutral, meaning the company will reduce its carbon emissions and try to offset the emissions left over.

“We’ve recognized that these are issues that are important to our readers and, increasingly, important to our advertisers,” said David J. Refkin, the director of sustainable development for the Time Inc. division of Time Warner and a member of the board of the Heinz Center. “We’re starting to see a movement where becoming carbon neutral is something many companies are considering.”

•Large-scale manufacturing is, of course, better known as a source of the greenhouse gases that many scientists say cause global warming. Electric power production represents about 40 percent of emissions in the United States, and private motor vehicle use accounts for about 20 percent, said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University.

Still, the paper industry is not without its impact. Because of its consumption of energy, the industry — which includes magazines, newspapers, catalogs and writing paper — emits the fourth-highest level of carbon dioxide among manufacturers, according to a 2002 study by the Energy Information Administration, a division of the Department of Energy. The paper industry follows the chemical, petroleum and coal products, and primary metals industries.

“Few people realize the sheer scale and magnitude of activities it takes to produce millions of copies of a magazine,” said Donald Carli, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Communication, a nonprofit group in New York that is working to help advertisers estimate their ads’ greenhouse emissions. “There’s a hidden life that products have, and one of the challenges of sustainability is to make these lives known.”

The life of a magazine or a newspaper starts with trees being cut down in a forest and ends with the burning or recycling of old magazines or papers. The most harmful part of the process is paper production. Breaking down wood fiber to make paper consumes a lot of energy, which in many cases comes from coal plants.

Time Inc. and the News Corporation are ahead of most publishers in their public commitment to reducing carbon emissions. Other media companies contacted for this article— including Dow Jones, The New York Times Company and Condé Nast — would not comment on the levels of emissions produced by their publications.

“It’s something new to the industry, apparently,” said Jan Angilella, spokeswoman for Newsweek, which is owned by the Washington Post Company. “We’re working with printers and paper mills to see if there’s something more to be done.”

Recent reductions in paper size at many newspapers and declining circulation at many newspapers will, of course, also reduce the level of carbon emissions at paper mills. Numerous publications have taken steps to use more recycled paper — which helps decrease the number of trees used.

Time Inc.’s study found that greenhouse emissions from one of its paper mills accounted for 61 percent of the emissions from Time magazine and 77 percent of In Style’s emissions. In May, Time Inc. announced that it had asked the company’s paper suppliers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2012.

Mr. Refkin said the idea of sustainability — an emphasis on improving society and the environment for future generations — had come up recently in discussions with advertisers like Aveda, a beauty products company owned by Estée Lauder. Aveda sends sustainability surveys to publications to help decide where to place its ads. The surveys include questions about greenhouse emissions.

“As a company that advertises in magazines, we play an important role in encouraging publishers to better their environmental practices,” said Tanya Rogosheske, an advertising manager for Aveda. “Magazine publishers pay close attention to our interests and are receptive to environmental concerns. They become more receptive when they realize how important it is to their advertising revenue.”

A number of companies, including General Electric, Home Depot, Ford Motor, BP and Wal-Mart Stores, have been putting greater emphasis on reducing the environmental impact of their products. And Time Inc. admits that environmentally focused companies are particularly interested in advertising in Time Inc. magazines when they run articles and special editions about the environment.

Consumers are also becoming more aware of the impact of greenhouse emissions. Mr. Refkin of Time Inc. said he thought some of that awareness came from Al Gore’s recent movie “An Inconvenient Truth” and from coverage of Hurricane Katrina that said the hurricane’s extreme force might have been related to global warming.

“Probably five years ago, if somebody said something about carbon, the average consumer wouldn’t know what you were talking about,” said Tom Pollock, project manager at Metafore, a nonprofit environmental group. Metafore helped organize the Paper Working Group, which is trying to change paper-buying practices.

“CO2 and other greenhouse gases are subjects that people are looking to now since global warming is more and more in the public eye,” Mr. Pollock said.

Time Inc. is the only media company that is a member of the Paper Working Group, which also includes McDonald’s, Starbucks and Bank of America.

One way companies can become carbon neutral is to buy offsets: guarantees that carbon-lowering actions like planting trees will take place to make up for greenhouse emissions. If Time Inc., for example, wanted to buy offsets to make up for the emissions from Time magazine, it would cost about $2,500 weekly, Mr. Refkin said. Time’s study found that an average copy of Time caused about 0.29 pound of greenhouse gas emissions.

It is unclear whether In Style’s and Time magazine’s levels of greenhouse gas emissions are representative of other publications because emissions depend heavily on the source of paper. Time does not currently plan to become completely carbon neutral in the future, Mr. Refkin said.

•One In Style advertiser is currently creating a way for it to pay for its own carbon offsets. John Hardy, a luxury jewelry company based in Bali, has formed a partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communication to request that publishers release information on their paper and printing sources. Mr. Carli of the institute will then estimate the total carbon emissions for all of John Hardy’s advertising across several publications.

Mr. Carli plans to develop a repository of information about many publications’ practices so that he can give greenhouse gas estimates to any other advertiser that also wishes to offset the emissions from its ads.

Mr. Carli estimates that John Hardy’s advertisements this year account for roughly 451 metric tons of greenhouse gases. To convert enough carbon dioxide into oxygen to offset the company’s magazine ads, the company plans to plant bamboo on the Balinese island of Nusa Penida. The bamboo needed will cover an area about the size of four football fields.

 

 

check it out: http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/26/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_gunther.fortune/index.htm

 

or here, I've cut and pasted it:

    Hey, here’s another teaser—coming this week you will be introduced to two active anti-KCers at the University of Chicago. Later (as in—next week, maybe this week if I can send 1200 yard signs out before Friday), you will meet someone who’s been working with his college’s faculty and the business community around his school to reach the KC-free goal. Sound exciting? You bet it will be. I’m not called the &ldquoeborah Solomon of Greenpeace SF” for nothing. (Ok, so no one’s ever called me that, but I can dream, right? Check out Debbie: http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/nyrm/FOB/solomon.htm or a recent column: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/magazine/15wwln_q4.html?ex=1161748800&en=1951ceb668cbf5ae&ei=5070 .)

It seems as though I've been on summer vacation from writing this blog. BUT-- despite my laziness-slash-working-too-hard-on-other-campaigns, the KC Campus campaign has not been on summer vacation! Far from it. I'm off in Philadelphia, right now phonebanking for Project Hot Seat. But, as soon as I return to San Francisco, you can expect exciting interviews with KC campus coordinators across the country. These students are knee-deep in forcing KC off their campuses, and you can bet they'll have some really good tips and stories to tell.

 

 

    The Friday that Change It(!) started our cell phones were ringing off the hook. It seemed like everyone—all 137 of them—had delayed flights that relayed into missed connections, which turned into not making the shuttles from the airport to Catholic University in Washington DC. And, like all considerate people, the 137 in-college and just-out-of-college-students who were attending our 5-day organizer training program made possible by Seventh Generation and the blood, sweat and tears of the Greenpeace Grassroots Team were calling to let us know.  “I’m sitting on the plane, and I’ve sat here for two hours,” Area Code 917 told me testily. “Um, ok, thanks,” I replied. Though I wanted to chat with 917—I’m from New York; you’re from New York too?  What a coincidence!— a second later I had to get off. Missed flight after missed flight, area codes flew at me.  
   Despite all the flying problems, a good number of the 137 were able to get to DC by Friday night. Change It kicked off with a welcoming by Greenpeace’s Executive Director, John Passacantando as well as a speech by Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
    By Saturday, most people had arrived. Impressively, they gracefully dived into the week’s intense program. Saturday’s lectures included Welcomes by Phil Radford, Greenpeace’s Grassroots Manager, and Jeffrey Hollender, President and CEO of Seventh Generation. There was a brief “About Greenpeace” presentation, as well as introductions to the Greenpeace Student Network and the Greenpeace Organizing Term. Lawrence Bell of the National Coalition Building Institute and Author Rafe Martin spoke. And then—in the middle of Greenpeace Student Organizer Josh Lynch’s Facilitation Training—disaster struck.
    Well, not disaster. Not exactly.
    Interrupting Josh’s training was the unfolding and explaining of the Sweet Water simulation. The university town of Sweet Water, the students were informed, was in the middle of making an important energy decision. The university desperately needs more energy, and it could either invest in renewable, clean power, or expand its dirty coal power plant. The students were broken up into groups representing all sorts of interested parties—including campus environmental group, the town birdwatchers, the faculty business club, the national electricians union. Each group had specific goals (for example, the town birdwatchers were against the development of wind turbines, and the faculty business club wanted the coal power plant expanded so that the students at Sweet Water University could build relationships with Americoal, the company in charge of the plant). The Change It staff introduced themselves to the Change It students as various people in Sweet River University. Some of the characters represented included a Liberal, student-loving teacher, the President of Sweet Water University, the President’s Assistant, the Publicity Relations Manager of Sweet Water University, newspaper reporters, Sweet Water University’s Director of Facilities and her assistant. The students were told that they had until Tuesday morning to successfully campaign for Sweet Water’s energy future.
    With campaign tactics ranging from banner hangings off the dorms, to lobbying different Sweet River University characters, to coalition building amongst different groups, to protests during dinner time, to nature poetry reading, to posters plastered everywhere on the Change It quad, the students showed an awesome amount of campaign skills know-how. In addition, each day the students’ skills were sharpened with lectures on lobbying, coalition building, planning an event and media training.
It was a hard call—coming down to the “Clean COALition” or the Renewable energy coalition (I don’t think I ever caught the name)—but Sweet River needed a solution to her energy problems, so one side had to win. The morning after the Town Hall style meeting, where each group presented its side for three minutes and then the forum was open to the audience, the actors in the “Committee,” announced that Sweet River could look forward to a clean energy future.  
    But Change It wasn’t over! The students were needed to help launch Project Hot Seat (www.projecthotseat.org). On Wednesday, we traveled to the Capital, where we wrote letters to our Congresspeople demanding that they take action on global warming. After delivering these letters (one student even got her Congressman to suggest that he come to her University to speak!), the Change Itees put on their Change It tee-shirts, and formed an arrow out of their bodies. The body-arrow pointed to the Capital, and at the arrow’s base, the students first held a banner that read “Global Warming Starts Here,” and then, putting a hopeful spin on the issue, held up a banner that read “Global Warming Stops Here.” (Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/71485028@N00/.)
    Thursday was the last day of the program. Speakers included Lois Marie Gibbs, the Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. Gibbs, who got her organizing start as a housewife in upstate New York (in case this reference is too damn oblique—which it undoubtedly is, but this blog is getting unwieldy, and I’m getting tired—we’re talking about Love Canal here) gave a superb talk on the importance of organizing.
    And then people went home.
    PS: Check out some more things: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204765826 for the Sweet River Facebook stuff, and go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S5duSxi6xo to see what we were really up to.

    About two weeks ago, we at the San Francisco office under went a semi-major mail-out. To all of our US Forest Friendly businesses, we mailed over 250 follow-up letters, over 250 Forest Friendly 500 certificates, over 500 copies of a letter addressed to Mr. Jan Spencer, President of Kimberly-Clark Professional North Atlantic (one to Spencer and one to send back to us), and over 500 stamped and pre-addressed envelopes (one to Spencer, one back to us).  The letter to Spencer stated that this business was a Forest Friendly business, and would continue not to buy KC products until KC, in effect, becomes a Forest Friendly business too. The certificates (suitable for framing and hanging in the Forest Friendly business, I think) make clear that the business has committed to this initiative and highlight exactly what this means.     Since about last Thursday, we’ve been receiving back an average of 6 letters per day. And, as all businesses had to do to send the letter to KC was to sign their name, print their business name, and then put the letter in the envelope, mailing one to us, and one to KC, we expect to receive many more. Since last Thursday, we’re already received 30 or so copies of letters sent to KC. This means, of course, KC must have also received about 30 or so letters from American businesses (and the Canadian office did a similar mail-out with the Canadian businesses) asking them to be forest friendly.
    What do these letters mean for a KC exec—especially for someone like Spencer who’s in charge of KC’s relationships with other businesses? Let’s consider that these letters from American and Canadian companies are stating that they that will not buy KC products until the company becomes Forest Friendly. So basically, we’re talking about KC’s business here. We’re talking about companies communicating in a tangible form (massive amounts of mail; think about the act of opening each envelope up!) their purchasing power.  
    Here’s a plan: you’ll keep recruiting businesses to the Forest Friendly 500, we’ll keep the letters to Forest Friendly businesses coming, the Forest Friendly businesses will keep sending their letters to KC, and all together (with some email actions, newspaper coverage, university student activities, etc, etc, etc) we’ll do it!

    While I’ve been away in Amsterdam for the past week (it was a business trip—really!), the Greenpeace Organizing Term has been working to raise ancient forest destruction awareness through out Wisconsin.
    Not content to make a splash only in the pretty college city of Madison, WI (a friend from Madison told me that his younger brother likes to surf on the lake wearing a Speedo!?!), last week the GOT team traveled to papermaking city of Neenah, WI, where Kimberly-Clark began its ancient forest destruction and continues to have a presence.
    One of their first activities there was creating a forest crime scene in front of KC’s central administrative offices in downtown Neenah. The GOTters stood with Forest Crime Scene banners, Wanted banners (“Wanted: Kimberly-Clark for Ancient Forest Destruction&rdquo, and delivered a letter to the executives based in Neenah. The Crime Scene lasted about 45 minutes, long enough to force KC employees to step over the Crime Scene tape when they left the building for lunch. (See www.kleercut.net/en/neenah for photos.)
    Other GOT activities in Neenah include paying a visit on KC Board Member John Bergstrom’s Hummer dealership. (Why are the bad guys always so bad? It’s so poetic it kills me.) Bergstrom owns dozens of car dealerships through out the town, but at this particular one, the GOTtes held a banner that read “John Bergstrom of Kimberly-Clark: Driving Ancient Forest Destruction.” NBC’s only regional environmental reporter filmed a very positive piece that went live on the 5 PM news.
    So the GOT this summer is rocking. But don’t just take it from me. Here’s what Diana Silbergeld, GOT coordinator extraordinaire says: “The students have become an effective, tight team and today’s event [she’s referring to the Bergstrom festivities] was smooth and inspiring. The GOT team are professional messengers of the Kleercut campaign, sneaky activists with their poster hanging and banner unfurling, and have sent a clear warning to Kimberly-Clark in the best Greenpeace spirit.”
    Sounds good to me! As they say in Amsterdam, Go GOT go!  

     The GOT (Greenpeace Organizing Term) Team is wrecking positive environmental havoc in Madison, Wisconsin. Their 2nd day organizing for the Kleercut campaign brought 29 new Forest Friendly 500 (now past 600) businesses; 6 new Madison student leaders, and 1000 signed petitions. In addition to the excellent GOTters, there is a super Madison volunteer, Eli. Eli petitioned all day, got bucket donated in the afternoon to make into tree stumps, and is eagerly awaiting his second day of Kleercut petitioning.
    Further, the GOT alumni network is alive and thriving. Alum Kyle and Alumnae Stacy and Tanya are all in Wisconsin, helping the 20-plus team out.
    Way to go GOT! Keep checking back here for more GOT updates. It's sure to be an exciting summer!
    Sound like fun? You can do this too! Apply to the GOT program. Check out http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/the-greenpeace-organizing-term.

For a homework assignment, my little sister, Fiona, wrote an essay about me. Although she hasn’t gotten everything correct (FYI: the part about fixing in parks in San Francisco is not totally true; it was more like a plan that I had and told my sister about, and KC destroys ancient forests, not rainforests), the general drift is—well, incredibly sweet. The original essay also makes effective use of Clip Art, but as documented in previous blogs, I am computer illiterate, and thus wasn’t able figure out how to reproduce the original file here. Anyway, I will just quote the essay for you, and like every older sister, I will insert my comments into her essay with parentheses.

Fiona's Essay:

My sister Renata is the kindest person I know. [Ahhh…] She’s funny and has a great sense of humor. [Double Ahhhh. . .] She also cares about the earth. Renata works for Greenpeace. She also volunteers to fix parks in San Francisco for poor children to play in. Last but not least she is very nice to me and to everyone else. [It’s really easy to idealize someone who’s across the country, in San Francisco, while you’re in Westchester, NY, but, hey, never mind that!] Renata teaches me how to help the earth. [She might be referring to all the times she’s told me that she wants to live in our house, raise dogs, and own SUVs, and I’ve told her that she can raise as many dogs as she wants, and even move into my bedroom, but she may not own any of those monster cars.] She also taught me how to not use Kimberly-Clark products because this company destroys rainforests to make paper products [look at that- a 11 year old gets it]. I admire Renata because she gives herself to help the world!

Isn’t that the nicest? Try telling your sibs about the KC campaign and see what essays they write about you! I'll be away next week, but back in July, and I look forward to telling you about more exciting KC campaign events!

    Yes, we are closer to 600 Forest Friendly businesses than 500 (!!), but there are still ways for you to help out with the KC campaign. You can keep on recruiting businesses (the more we have, the stronger the statement we make). But what if you’ve recruited every business in your town/city/state/county? Well, if you have just absolutely exhausted your recruitment pool in your area (and even if you haven’t), there are some new things you can do.  
    Here’s one. Keep an eye out for large businesses/institutions that are using KC products. (In the US and Canada, these are the brands: Kleenex, Cottonelle, Viva, Windows, Scott, Surpass and Tradition; outside of the US and Canada: Kleenex, Cottonelle, Cottonelle Puppy, Andrex, Scottbrand, Hakle, Scottex.) Pretty soon you will be able to use Kleercut.net to report your “in the field” sightings, as well as find instructions on the next steps you can take after the spotting. So right now, keep your eyes open, and make your lists of businesses/institutions long! I’ve already spotted one—I was at the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s annual plant sale, and I noticed a KC toilet paper dispenser! (Which suggests that there is KC toilet paper in there . . .) How ironic!
    Also, if you have any tips/stories about recruiting businesses, don’t keep them to yourself! Send them to me (renata.silberblatt@sfo.greenpeace.org), and I’ll put them up on the blog for everyone to see.

    What does 535 businesses, 107% of our target mean? Well, if you’re looking at www.forestfriendly500.org, it means a number of things. It means that as of Wednesday, June 7th, 2006, 535 businesses have pledged not to use K-C products. It means that 535 businesses in the US, Canadian and farther away have chosen to take a decisive step against Kimberley-Clark’s needless, senseless destruction of ancient forests. That 535 businesses have stood up to Kimberly-Clark’s ridiculous and infuriating green-washing of their corporation. That these businesses have told the company it can say whatever it wants on paper and on the internet, but K-C’s true practices are no longer a secret.
    What 535 businesses, 107% of our target doesn’t mean is that we’re done. We need more businesses to take a stand against K-C. We need more people to know about what K-C’s Boreal destruction; we need more public outrage, more public pressure. Passing the 500 mark is great, awesome, impressive for sure. But think about how many businesses are out there—millions. Literally: the whole world. And shouldn’t the whole world be furious at K-C for what it’s doing?  
    I’ve been calling Forest Friendly businesses for about a week now, thanking them for taking a stand, and making sure that they want to join us in the next step of the campaign (having their business listed in an ad in a newspaper).  Strange but true: many of the businesses I’ve talked to have thanked me for including them in the campaign, for providing an outlet for them to show support. So, if doing your part to save ancient forests isn’t incentive enough to make you a Forest Friendly recruiter, chew on this: being a Forest Friendly recruiter also enables you to empower environmentally conscious small businesses that are often overlooked by environmental campaigns.
    PS: if you take a look at the Forest Friendly 500, you’ll see that Canadian businesses outnumber American one 2 to 1 (at least 2:1, I’ve only scanned the list). People of the USA! Come on! For the sake of self (forget national) pride, we cannot let our moral, sage, well-accented (as in, don’t Canadians have charming accents? I think so) northern neighbors beat us for the umpteenth time!  (Can you tell that my best friend from high school is Canadian?)

 I should have known better than to try to get a table at Revolution Café at 8:30 tonight. After all, it’s the only café in the Mission that’s open past 9, at least the only one that’s not a bar too. And anyway, it’s definitely the only coffee place around here that comes up with frequency on the CraigsList San Francisco Missed Connections Section—“cute barista at Revolution,” or “Hot guy with the headphones who let me share his table, Revolution 5 PM.”

It’s not a long walk from my house to the café—two blocks—but it’s annoying going anywhere lugging a laptop, especially my roommate’s, which is heavy. (Mine is heavy too, and too old to get wireless internet, if you can believe that.) Add to the bother of schlepping around a laptop, my natural neurotic state practically dictates that I’m going to be nervous that I’ll just break anything that’s not mine … so, well, you can imagine how I felt after I saw that I had left my house for no reason. I was not going to get a seat in this café; the line to order coffee was literally out the door.

Terrific. This brings me to where I am now, in my room, on my bed (the largest thing in my room), with my roommate’s heavy laptop sitting on my lap. A very fabulous looking mug of coffee (although it seems like a TV show interior designer might call this mug’s design “awful, earthy, 1970s&rdquo is perched on the inside windowsill (the window’s molding?).

This whole situation reminds me of college, except that probably at college there would be a table for me at the café, and the café wouldn’t close until 1. Well, ok. Drinking coffee at 9:08 PM, while typing on a computer reminds me of college. And further, the whole idea that I’m doing work for work that isn’t really work (I mean, I’m writing a blog for god’s sake) also seems oddly similar to college, where the work (writing essays and reading books) I did wasn’t “work” either. 

But what a great lead-in because I want to talk about college. I want to tell you about two Greenpeace programs for college students that I had no idea about when I was in school, but that I wish I had known existed.

Change It! is a leadership training program that Greenpeace is running in partnership with Seventh Generation. Students selected for this program will be flown to D.C. to work one-on-one with Greenpeace mentors. These mentors will provide personalized training on campaign strategy, message development, lobbying, recruitment, and event planning. Students will travel offsite to participate in a campaign event and will emerge from the program with the skills and tools they need to become effective leaders in the environmental and social justice movements. Some of the guest speakers will include John Passacantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, and Jeffrey Hollender, President of Seventh Generation. The program starts on July 28^th, and I’ll be sure to keep you informed on some of the highlights (so that you’ll want to apply next year!). In the meantime, check out http://www.changeit06.org/index.vm.

The other opportunity you should be aware of is the Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT) program. The GOT program is an action-filled semester and the best hands-on training for students to become environmental leaders. You’ll be making an investment in your leadership skills, getting training in grassroots organizing, media, direct action, and campaign strategy.  You’ll travel abroad with Greenpeace and join a team of incredible activists working to protect the planet. Sound good? Then apply. The summer term has already begun, and you’ve probably already picked your classes for Fall ’06, but, hey, what about Spring ’07? Check out http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/greenpeace-organizing-term. As enticement, through out the summer, I’ll be peppering this blog with fun stuff past/current GOT teams have done/ are doing.

Happy summer vacation to you! And, good night!

    Yesterday, at 5 PM, I wandered computer-bleary eyed around the net. Feeling too guilty about my one-hour Chinese restaurant lunch to leave the office early, I stumbled across some resources my lovely Greenpeace colleagues have thoughtfully placed upon the web.
    I know that the web is made up of many rooms with many different doors and corridors leading to these rooms, so yes, you may have come across some of these tools en route to reading this blog. But I’m going to assume that you haven’t. After all, doesn’t one always want to think that one is helpful, introducing friends to new things, rather than annoying, pointing out things friends already know?  
    Here’s what I found.
    If you go to http://kleercut.net/en/campus, you will be able to download a Kleercut student packet. This is a nine-page guide to beginning, middling, and completing the Campaign on your campus. Also available on the site, you will find a sample letter your university can “write” to K-C. This letter, or one extremely similar to it, is your goal. (You will find a link to this blog, but nuff said about that.) Though Lindsey Allen, our very dedicated Campus Kleercut Organizer, will be glad to send you information on the Kleercut Campaign, it’s always good to be able to access the resource on your own, from your dorm room or the library or where ever else you might be.  
    The other resource I came across in my end-of-the-day internet hiking trip was the Greenpeace Student Network. If you go to http://members.greenpeace.org/students, you will find a list of schools that have already joined the network, so you can see if you school’s there, or if there are schools in your area. (High schoolers—there are high schools in the network too!)  If you mosey on to the About Us link, you can learn more about the structure of the network. This is especially helpful if you are in the beginning stages of getting a group of students together.
    Further, also on the page is a brief history of the 21st Century. The 21st Century Greenpeace Student Network, that is. It unarguably inspiring to read about these students’ accomplishments. Last night, I went home at a decent hour, full of Chinese food lunch and excitement for the future.

    Have you heard this before? “So what does your environmental interest have to do with the real world?” What an annoying, ridiculous question. Yet for so many people, environmental work is either far away from, or just not part of, the “real world.” I have found this is especially true for forest and wilderness work, where the areas getting the attention are the areas physically removed from the population that is trying to save them (as well as removed, most likely, from the greater population).
But questions like these are part of the reason I am particularly excited about the Forest Friendly 500, a website of businesses that have pledged not to buy Kimberly-Clark products until the company stops sourcing from ancient forests to make its disposable paper products. This website makes the very necessary connection between the Boreal Forest’s well-being and consumer choices.
So there you have the “Forest Friendly 500” bit to which the title of this blog refers. Here’s where the two other parts of the blog’s title comes in—this summer, the Kimberly-Clark campaign needs you to recruit businesses to join the Forest Friendly 500.
As a Forest Friendly 500 activist this summer, not only will you be connecting with your community, but you’ll be educating people about ancient forests and their role in protecting/destroying these lands. You’ll be the person who’s making the connection between “environmental issues” and  “real world” issues. What could be more exciting? Not much, that’s for sure.
Oh, wait, here’s something that’s practically equally exciting—get ten businesses to join the Forest Friendly 500, and you’ll get a free green Kleercut t-shirt, get twenty sign-ups, and you’ll get a free hoodie. (Check out the website www.forestfriendly500.com for more information.)
Visit www.forestfriendly500.com to download your activist pack, and get busy! All the businesses in the world are eligible to participate—from, say, a family member’s business, to the coffee shop where you get your morning coffee, to the thrift store or law office in your neighborhood. You get the idea. Right now we have 264 businesses (52%) of the 500, but we need more. (Hey! It wouldn’t hurt to have more than 500 businesses listed, either.)
One last thing— if you plan on being a Forest Friendly activist, it would be great if you could email me (renata.silberblatt@sfo.greenpeace.org). This way, I’ll be able to see how many activists we have working on this campaign this summer. I’ll also keep you up-to-date on K-C campaign activities after the summer.

As I’ve reported a few blogs ago, American University has gone K-C free. Amazing news, but you might wonder: who are some of the people behind this victory? Well, I’ve been hard at work getting this scoop (ok, “hard at work” is a little misleading: I’ve traded some emails, and got the scoop for you). In the next few paragraphs, I want to talk about Riley Neugebauer, American University’s Environmental Coordinator.
When asked about how she became an environmentalist, Riley responds that she “can’t explain it that well, because it always just made so much sense to me.” She points out that growing up in rural Pennsylvania, her “parents instilled in me the ideals of conservation, hard work, the difference between needs and wants, and the importance of self-sufficiency.” These things, along with the “great appreciation for how beautiful the world is, and how beautiful the different people of the world are,” directed her toward “helping the earth and helping people at the same time.” However, her environmentalism became more focused in college, where she switched from environmental science to environmental studies partially because of the “wonderful professors who really showed hope along with the scary threats to the planet and its species.” Also at college, Riley learned about community organizing, and perhaps more importantly, she learned that not only did she have a knack for organizing, but that she had passion for doing this kind of work as well. Her organizing experience at college lead her to see that she “really wanted to be able to organize, and especially organize young people around environmental issues, because of all our passion and energy and power.”
One of the main challenges that faced the American University K-C campaign was “figuring out what a letter from “the university” meant.” Riley notes that “there was no way that we could go straight to the President and have him sign this letter regarding K-C. Everything that you try to push through at that level of leadership take months, years, to succeed.”   Instead, what worked really well was figuring out a target who had purchasing power over the campus, but who wasn’t the president or a major senior-level administrator. Riley and Lindsey (GP’s Kleercut Student Organizer) “changed the letter [that stated AU wouldn’t purchase K-C products] a bit so that it applied to the Director in Facilities Management.” This director at AU “is the person who manages the contracts with Housekeeping services here, and so he has some level of control over what goes into AU’s contracts and what paper the school uses through the vendor with which the school works.”
I asked Riley to give me some tips to pass on to aspiring (and real-life) student activists and organizers. She gave me three. Firstly, she suggests that activists/organizers shouldn’t get into the mindset that “every administrator and every person in power [on their campuses] is evil.” She believes that “this mindset among the activist communities on many campuses is really detrimental to getting things done.” Along these lines, another tip she has is for students to “identify champions within the administration to help them, and act as a liaison between students and other administrators.” This can be the sustainability coordinator, but it can also be interested staff. Her last tip is that students should “not forget their power.” She points out that “Institutions are there for students [. . .] Rather than feel that your institution owes you the right to park wherever you want, or that it should use plenty of pesticides so the grass is green, you should feel it is your right to make changes which are better for our health, for our planet, and for the future economy in dealing with real issues like climate change, a lack of corporate social responsibility, poor forest management, and the loss of biodiversity.”
Well said, no? With Riley’s help, it seems almost certain that America University will be going far, leading the environmentally-conscious university charge.  

    Obviously, every campus is different, and there is no one way, one set of steps to follow, to run a successful campus campaign. However, consider the points that follow as a sort of checklist that you can add to, or subtract from, as they relate to your campus situation.

1) Identify your goal. The over-arching goal of the K-C University Campaign is to get universities to commit to not using K-C products until the company stops sourcing from ancient forests.
2) Find your target. Who is the Facilities or Operations or Purchasing Manager (i.e. who is responsible for purchasing decisions) at your school?
3) Find yourself a group. You’re going to need student (and maybe even professor) allies in this campaign. Either form a group with your friends and other interested parties, or find an already-existing campus group that deals with environmental issues. Some campuses have groups that tackle campus-purchasing procedures. If your campus has one of these, you may want to work closely with them (i.e. join the group and get them to tackle this campaign with you).
4) Get the word out to the student body. School officials are a lot like politicians—most times, in order to make them move on a campaign, you need to show them that a lot of people care about the issue.
Some ways to get the word out:
- campus newspapers (write an op-ed, write a letter or get an editorial)  
- tabling (posters, fliers, banners, anything to catch people’s eyes and engage them in the issues—this is a good chance to be creative and have fun)
- PSAs on the campus radio (write up a quick rap about K-C and get your college radio station DJs to read it every few hours)
5) Record your support. As you get the word out, get records of support. Have people sign postcards, letters, toilet paper, anything to document that they support your work on the K-C campaign.
6) Meet with the decision-makers (i.e. your target). This is not as easy as it sounds, after all, who knows how willing to meet with you your individual campus decision makers will be, so setting up an initial meeting may take a lot of hard work and persistence. Nevertheless, let’s jump ahead. Good work! You’ve set up a meeting. Make sure that you’re prepared for this meeting.
- Know the issues: why are you against K-C?
- Know what you want from your school.
- Know why you want this; be able to vocalize the importance and impact on K-C of your university/college going K-C free.
- Be able to offer realistic other purchasing suggestions for your school.
- Come prepared to counter your school’s arguments against going K-C free.
- Have literature on hand that the decision-makers can refer to and keep after the meeting. (Pictures of the Boreal are really helpful, as they literally let people see things they may never have known existed before.)
- Bring your show of student support. No- you don’t need to bring your 10,000 students into the office, but do bring the signed petitions or letters.
7) Follow up with the decision-makers. This means a thank you for the meeting, but also a nudge (or more than a nudge, some pushes) to keep them to what they’ve agreed. Maybe they haven’t said that your school will go K-C free, but said that they’ll “look into that possibility.” Well, ok. So give them a call a few days later and ask, “Have you checked out the literature I’ve left with you? Do you have any questions about what we’ve discussed?” Also, ask for follow-up meetings.
8) Lastly, be prepared to fight! Remember, this may be a long-term campaign. You might even graduate before your school’s committed to going K-C free. But laying the groundwork: getting other students interested in what you’re doing, and letting others (people outside of school, the faculty) know about the campaign, are both huge aspects of any campaign. Even if you can’t get the golden egg, a letter of support from your school, by educating the public around you, I’d say you’ve definitely gotten lots of gold dust, and think about how much easier you made the trail for the following year!

American University has just committed to going K-C free! Sitting on my desk, positioned in between my notebook and mug of tea (Earl Grey, much inferior to English or Irish breakfast but all I could find in the office kitchen cabinet) is the letter from a certain Mr. Willy Suter, Director of Facilities Management for American University to a certain Mr. Thomas Falk. It is Cc’ed to Ms. Cheryl Perkins, Mr. Ken Strassner, and Mr. W. Dudley Lehman.
    It begins: “I am writing to express my concern about the Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s continued reliance on fiber from ancient and endangered forests for disposable tissue paper products.”
    Willy makes note of the Boreal’s old growth trees, the diverse animal populations as well as the indigenous peoples who depend on the forest for their day-to-day survival, and how the forest functions as a carbon storehouse, making it an essential tool for all of us in our day-to-day fight against global warming.
    Sound familiar? All the better.
    The letter also makes the link between an environmental stewardship education at a university and the university’s commitment to environmental stewardship. Good old (or young?- I’ll google him later) writes:

Given that a large percentage of your worldwide fiber comes from the North American      boreal, and that your overall tissue paper production in North America contains less than 19% recycled content, we’re concerned your company does not support the wise and sustainable use of natural resources. As such, I’m not interested in using Kimberly-Clark paper products until the company has made a commitment to: Not source from endangered forests; Greatly increase the use of recycled fiber, including post consumer content, in all paper products; Only source virgin fiber from logging operations that have been certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council.

    Sound familiar? You bet.
    Way to go, American students! Maybe my next blog can feature some stories about how this campaign was tackled and won. In the meantime, in the words of good old Sonic Youth, Keep on, keep on, keep on!

    Saturday April 22nd was Earth Day. After waking up, going to the post office, and eating some breakfast, I found myself at the Greenpeace booth at the Berkeley Earth Day celebration. Both fortunately and unfortunately, our booth was downwind from the kettle corn stand, positioned behind a fountain. In back of us was a large banner talking about the dirty politics killing clean energy. One of our goals on Saturday was to encourage Bay Area constituents to write a letter to their Senator Feinstein to get her to save Cape Wind. Another one of our goals was to promote two of our other campaigns, Community Choice and the market campaign against Kimberly-Clark.
    Market campaigns are truly interesting because they target consumers as well as corporations. Both sides are encouraged, empowered, to make the right choice, and further, both sides are reminded of their close relationship. That is, while corporations are probably already way too conscious of how their decisions affect consumer choices, in these kinds of campaigns, consumers are able to see how their everyday choices really do influence corporate decisions. More to the point, consumers can see that they—not just the bad corporations— are implicated in the destruction— as well as the protection— of the planet.  Market campaigns serve to remind us that we are not innocent and helpless, that (this sounds so drastic, but really!) every decision we make has repercussions, not only for us personally, but rippling out, ultimately affecting all.  
    That being said, I must admit my shock at the Berkeley Earth Day public. To each passerby who stopped, I explained the K-C campaign, talked about how K-C destroys the Boreal, an ancient forest that is relevant in our daily lives as it forms one of the world’s largest land-based storehouses of carbon dioxide. I painted as vivid a picture I could of the Boreal, an ancient forest that is home to diverse animal and plant life and is depended on for subsistence by native peoples.
And yet—and yet, people still told me that they choose to use Kleenex because recycled paper is “too hard" on their noses. To me, this is truly mind blowing. If you are so concerned with softness for your precious noise, why not use a cloth handkerchief? Surely a handkerchief is much softer than any kind of paper, sourced from ancient forests or not.  Furthermore, I wonder how these people will explain to their children why hundreds of species of animals (moose, caribou, lynx, bear, wolves, eagles, hawks and owls to name only a few), plants and ancient trees were destroyed for the box of Kleenex sitting in their bathrooms. When it comes to ancient forests, it is not a hard choice to choose recycled.

Consider the Day of Action over? Reconsider! The days of action against Kimberly-Clark, destroyer of ancient forests, are ahead and are plenty.

Here are some situations in which you might find yourself these days:

1. Wanting to get involved, but school’s ending and you’re strapped with a ton of work (but not a ton of time).

2. Wanting to get involved, but not really wanting to take on a huge school-wide K-C campaign.

3. Wanting to get involved, but school’s close to being done—and that’s all you can think about!

As luck will have it, there are a few answers to the above-listed problems.

1. Even though school’s ending, you can take steps now to start your campus on the K-C free path. Contact Lindsey Allen either by phone (415) 710-5601 (cell) or email, Lindsey.Allen@sfo.greenpeace.org to find out all the exciting ways you can prime your campus for activities next year. And hey-- some of these activities are as simple as submitting an op-ed to your school newspaper, not really time consuming.

2. Can’t take on the K-C campaign to make your school K-C free? Maybe you’re not a student or maybe you are, but even so, you’re hesitant to start a campaign and nothing Lindsey says will convince you otherwise. Well, fine. Why not become a Forest Friendly 500 recruiter? Along with campuses pledging to halt using K-C products till the company stops clear cutting ancient forests, it’s important for businesses to assert their consumer muscle and pledge too. Go to http://forestfriendly500.org/recruit to learn more.

3. Join the Greenpeace Student network. Go here, http://members.greenpeace.org/member/student.php, and sign yerself up.

And what a day of action it was! Unless your head’s been in a toilet for the past month, you must have heard all about the planned K-C Student Day of Action. This past Wednesday,  college students across the US and Canada made a Kleercut Stink, telling Kimberly-Clark that sourcing from ancient forests to make disposable products is just not cool. From the desk of Lindsey Allen, Campus Organizer for GP’s Kleercut Campaign, here are some quick highlights.

-- 143: number of different campus events
-- 42: number of different US states events held in
-- 818: number of calls made to K-C headquarters—SO FAR
-- 127: number of campuses that have yet to report the number of calls made to K-C headquarters
-- 6,000 +: number of Kleercut fliers distributed
-- 3: number of K-C employees in the Communications Department who turned off their phones
-- 10: number of events in Texas, K-C’s “home turf”
-- 9: number of events in Wisconsin, home of the giant Neenah Complex

And, as the reports come back to us, I’ll be sure to keep you updated!

The K-C Student Day of Action is imminently upon us! This Wednesday, there will be 124 Student Actions in the US and Canada. 37 states have Actions planned, and there are 5 events in Canada (1 Saskatchewan, 4 in Ontario). If each event puts a minimum of 20 calls into the K-C headquarters, that’s 2,480 calls on April 5th!
To see the list of Actions in your state/ province that you can attend, get helpful hints including talking points and other event-day suggestions, check out http://www.stopklennex.com/april5. Here’s a sample tip: Wondering how you’re going to make that faux toilet? You can drape a white sheet over a chair, drawing in marker (or paint, but it seems like you’d have more control with a marker) toilet features (i.e. a flusher and a seat) onto your sheet.
Thanks to all the students who are organizing these sure-to-be awesome events! Thanks in advance to everyone attending too! I’ll definitely update you all on some of the success stories. Two last things: remember to take photos and be sure to send them to us at usa@kleercut.net! Can't wait to see the photos, hear about everything!!!

    It seems to me that we don’t hear enough about young environmental leaders. People are doing great work all over, and yet, we hardly ever know their names (or even their actions). This was made clear to me when an ex-boyfriend who works in publishing started ticking off the names of “famous” people he had seen at his bosses’ (two of his bosses were getting married) wedding. After excitedly listing all the young writers/publishing people he had seen at this event, I started thinking about the people in my field who I’d be excited to see at an event. And though I’ve been a committed environmentalist since before I can remember, I couldn’t come up with a single name. Rachel Carson? Dead. John Muir? No longer with us. Edward Abbey? Departed. I thought hard, and I was still at zero.
    Well, not quite. I spent yesterday morning talking with Mark, who is in Greenpeace’s GOT (Greenpeace Organizing Term) program. Mark spoke quickly in a friendly Midwestern manner that reminds me of my Ohio college days. Excitedly, he told me about someone he met over the phone—a committed college activist who is vigorously trying to change her world.
    Minneapolis-born Kate Hunt’s favorite quote is from George Adams: “. . .but if your mind is imaginative, if your heart seeks the unexplored, the setting does not matter. Your life will be an adventure.” She arrived on the Wartburg Campus in small-town Waverly, Iowa ready for action. Before she got there, Wartburg was very quiet. The 1,200-student campus was conservative, with little political activity going on.
    Growing up with an activist mother who was the executive director at the Voyageurs Region National Park Association, Kate's activism roots started early. She continues to grow these roots at Wartburg, establishing a politically active base at school. She is known around campus for always talking to people about how they can become involved—whether she is at parties, or getting a meal in the dining hall. Despite that Wartburg’s administration remains slow to implement change, hesitant even to establish a school-wide recycling policy, she manages to stay positive and actively engaged.
    When Mark contacted Kate about partaking in the K-C Student Day of Action on April 5, she was excited to be involved as ever. But when Mark mentioned that the goal of the Day of Action was to get 20 phone calls from students on each campus in to the K-C headquarters, Kate’s end of the phone fell silent. Mark grew worried. “Is this going to be a problem?” he wondered. Then Kate spoke. “This campus is going to get 100 phone calls in. We can do it,” she said.

To learn more about how you can become involved in the K-C campaign, visit www.kleercut.net and if you want to attend a K-C Day of Action, check out www.stopkleenex.com/april5.

    This is the Greenpeace blog space, so I’m sure everyone here already knows about Kleenex’s kleercuts in the Boreal forest, as well as understands all about the Boreal’s importance. So I shouldn’t bother to point out that even though it’s far away from us (those of us in the US and most of us in Canada, also), these wildlands are an essential guard against global warming, storing carbon dioxide in thick layers of moss, soil and peat. I won’t go into the Boreal’s totally incredible landscape of granite outcrops, lakes, rivers and marshes interspersed with pine, spruce, fir and polar forests. I won’t even mention that the Boreal is home to hundreds of wide-ranging wildlife species, such as moose, caribou, lynx, bear, wolves, eagles, hawks, owls. And of course, I’m going to tell you nothing, absolutely nothing, about the nearly 50% of the other 700 North American bird species that nest or breed in the Boreal.
    All this not being said, there is something that I bet you don’t know, and this is what I want to tell you about. The Kleercut campaign has a student component. Students can—students are—working across the country to influence their universities and colleges to not buy Kimberly-Clark products. So, just as individuals and small businesses (check out the Forest Friendly 500, www.forestfriendly500.com, if you haven’t already) are saying “No” to Kleercuts, if the students have their way, soon too will schools be wheedling their purchasing power against K-C. Yay!
    More stuff you might not know: there is a Day of Action against K-C coming up. On April 5th, students across the country will be hosting “Kleercuts Stink” events. To learn more about the activities planned, or to see events near you that you can attend, or to sign up to host an event, go to www.stopkleenex.com/april5.
    Students have already had a Day of Action this past fall. While the fall’s activities got K-C’s attention, they responded by only paying lip service to our demands to stop kleercutting the Boreal. This time, with your help, we’re going to raise a stink that K-C can’t ignore!

    I have never been to the Boreal forest, but it sounds pretty amazing. Stretching across the northern portion of Canada from Eastern Alaska to the province of Newfoundland, this wild land has been evolving for more than 10,000 years, and by now it’s is a diverse and awe-inspiring landscape of granite outcrops, lakes, rivers, marshes, pine, spruce, fir and poplar forests. The Boreal also is home to hundreds of animal species, including moose, caribou, lynx, bear and wolves, not to mention, eagles, hawks, owls, and nearly 50% of the other 700 North American bird species nest or breed in the Boreal’s forests and wetlands.
So, what does this remarkable land have to do with you? Easy. It’s being destroyed in order to make boxes of Klennex.
    No, that wasn’t some kind of not-funny joke or a typo. You’ve totally read right: Klennex uses ancient forests to make tissues that millions of people just throw away. Klennex’s parent company, Kimberly-Clark (K-C), is the world’s largest tissue manufacturer and sources between 20-30% of its worldwide fiber from the Boreal.
But there’s hope. You can help push K-C onto the right track. April 5th has been declared by us at Greenpeace as the National Students Kleercuts Stink! Day of Action, and we need your support. On April 5th, student activists around the country will host these events, which will include setting up a (either real or prop) toilet, inviting people to take the Toilet Paper Challenge (can they tell the difference between toilet paper sourced from endangered forests and recycled toilet paper?), and lastly, making a call to K-C executives, telling them to clean up their act or get outta the bathroom!
    If you’re interested in hosting a Kleercuts Stink! Day of Action on your college campus, or connecting with people on your campus who are taking part in the campaign to save our ancient forests, contact Lindsey Allen, Greenpeace Kleercut Campus Organizer at (415) 255-9221 ext. 307 or lindsey.allen@sfo.greenpeace.org for more information.