High-tech firms promise to spare the trees

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by Ronna Abramson

(IDG) -- After targeting home builders and office suppliers, environmentalists toiling to save the world's oldest trees now are turning to the high-tech industry.

Eight technology companies, including Alta Vista, AT&T, Microsoft, Intel and 3Com, have signed onto a campaign organized by Forest Ethics, formerly the Coastal Rainforest Coalition, to boycott products from old-growth forests, often defined as forests that have largely been spared commercial logging and development.

Unlike furniture, lumber or office-supply companies, high-tech firms aren't typically considered big users of wood products. The majority of their consumption comes from packaging and internal-office paper use. Indeed, at least two companies have signed on without any immediate consequences: Microsoft and Intel said they have not yet uncovered any suppliers who are selling products made from old-growth trees.

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For Microsoft, whose packaging division has agreed to be old-growth-free, the policy will apply to the 27 million units the company predicts it will ship this year, says senior packaging engineer Gary Lietzke. "We are concerned with the environmental aspects of our products," Lietzke says. "That's why we stay with paper-board materials rather than something like plastic or metal packaging." The strategy also has lowered costs.

Intel, which has been working the longest with Forest Ethics, estimates its 75,000 employees used at least 3,000 tons of paper last year. In the fall, the No. 1 chip manufacturer added rules against ancient and old-growth trees in its internal-purchasing specs. The pressure came from within the company and from shareholders who saw a New York Times ad two years ago listing Fortune 500 companies committing to go old-growth-free, says Dave Stangis, manager of corporate responsibility.

Increasingly, activists have turned from lumber companies to the buyers of wood and paper products to stave off market demand. Last year, Home Depot agreed to stop selling wood from what Forest Ethics calls "environmentally sensitive areas" by 2002. In November, the Seattle-based group coordinated 75 demonstrations around the country to pressure Staples, the nation's biggest office-supply retailer, to phase out products made from old-growth fiber and to require 50 percent of the fiber in paper products to come from recycled material.

The other companies participating in the latest campaign targeting the high-tech industry are Texas Instruments, E-Trade and IKON Office Solutions.

"They are some of the most influential companies in the world because they're leading the U.S. economy right now," says Forest Ethics campaign manager Todd Paglia. "And they are going to set the norm for not only their industries but the rest of U.S. corporate America." At least one company -- Yahoo! -- opted not to join the pact, according to Paglia. A Yahoo! spokeswoman declined to comment.

About 95 percent of U.S. old-growth forests (with trees more than 150 years old) and 80 percent of such forests worldwide already have been destroyed, according to Forest Ethics.

Keith Rush, general manager of South Coast operations for International Forest Products, says he does not envision the high-tech campaign affecting his British Columbia company. His concern is that the campaign is misguided by environmentalists. "Their objective is preservation of everything," he says.

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Environmentalists organize online
(The Industry Standard)
German Web site turns trash into treasure
(IDG.net)
Take responsibility for the waste your company generates
(CIO)
Clean up your own mess
(IDG.net)
Listen to MP3s, save the environment?
(The Industry Standard)
Shades of green, online
(The Industry Standard)
From matter to energy
(The Industry Standard)
Dam shame
(Darwin)

International Forest Products Limited
AltaVista
AT&T
Microsoft
Intel
3Com
Coastal Rainforest Coalition
Home Depot
Staples
Texas Instruments
E*TRADE
IKON Office Solutions
Yahoo

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