Being an activist, as you know well, is not always particularly satisfying. You read about a lot of crappy things that crappy people do. You repeat the same information to the same decision makers hoping that this will be the time they really listen. And sometimes you have a victory. And on very very rare occasions you have two in one month.

I told you about Target. And now I'm really excited to tell you about Sears and Kmart. Sears Holdings, the company that owns Sears and Kmart, has committed to phasing out PVC in their products and packaging. Sears Holdings is the nation's sixth largest retailer with over $50 billion in sales per year and approximaterly 3,800 stores. 

Center for Health, Environment and Justice has been running a super successful PVC campaign getting companies to eliminate PVC. This means that 3 out of the 6 biggest retailer stores are in the process of phasing out PVC. How's that for progress? Maybe these big wigs are finally starting to understand that we all really do care about the chemicals that are in the things we bring into our homes.

You can check out their website and see what the entire policy is, but I'll give you some highlights:

- identify safer, more sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to PVC

- show preference to PVC free materials

- encourage vendors to reduce or eliminate PVC from their products and packaging

Pretty good. Now we need the rest of them to phase out PVC as well as brominated flame retardants. And remember they listen to people who buy their stuff.
 

Have a good week. I'm back on the east coast on Friday. I heard it snowed over there. That does not make me happy even if it is December.

Renee  

 . . .  which is what it should be doing.

Articles galore, supporter feedback. Some good discussions have been coming out of the latest Guide to Greener Electronics. Our international co-worker Tom put up a blog today that I thought was pretty interesting. He talked about a number of the discussions we've seen in the past several days.

Check it out here.  

Renee 

P.S: I only have two weeks left on the west coast. I'm starting to miss California already!