Greenpeace

    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?)