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Victoria's Dirty Secret, All Cleaned Up for the Party: ForestEthics

Posted by Jonathan Rothman / January 23, 2007

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Clad in a black bustier and angel's wings, the model poses in front of a clearcut with a chainsaw. "Victoria had a dirty secret," reads the text. The background image behind her alternates with one of lush green hills sloping toward a clear blue lake at sunset. "On December 6th, we cleaned it up."

Last month's victory for Victoria's Dirty Secret, a project of ForestEthics, is cause for celebration indeed. The nonprofit broke new ground on forest-friendly printing when they reached a landmark agreement with Limited Brands, the company that produces the Victoria's Secret catalogue. The green changes for the catalogue include a commitment to phase out the use of pulp made from endangered forests and western Canada's Boreal forest, and another to using recycled (including post-consumer waste) and FSC paper for their massive North American mailing campaigns.

Whether or not you remember all that news and talk, ForestEthics welcomes you to the NOW Lounge tomorrow evening (Jan. 24) from 6-8 p.m. for the Toronto celebration of this shift (SF, Vancouver and Edmonton have already raised a glass), which the org. hopes will serve as a leading example for similar corporations when it comes to consuming natural resources. Join the fun bunch for a sip, a nosh (they'll have hors d'œuvres on hand) and a hello. You might even meet ForestEthics superstar Program Director Tzeporah Berman, one of the presenters at last summer's annual IdeaCity conference -- where she was listed alphabetically online next to the Dark Lord, former newspaper magnate Conrad Black. Things that make you go hmmm ... (instead of "timber!")

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August / January 23, 2007 at 01:24 pm
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How wonderful.

The Boreal forest (not really western Canada, I'm afraid, more like Central, as most of it is east of the geographic centre of the nation) is a superbly managed forest, and projects like this are among the reasons that my home town (population 7,500) just had to lay off hundreds of workers and possibly close down its paper mill (and if that happens the community will simply cease to exist).

I'm all in favour of being eco-friendly, and stand behind eliminating the use of endangered forests, but the Boreal is not an endangered forest, and is home to many of the cleanest and safest paper producers in the country. Way to contribute to the death of an entire region for no good reason at all.
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Jerrold / January 23, 2007 at 01:58 pm
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While I do this it's great that they're diverting paper purchasing from the above mentioned sources, I think that the campaign is a totally hypocritcal and driven primarily by desires to gain market share on the legs of pseudo-environmentalism.

The <a href="http://www.victoriasdirtysecret.net/article.php?id=324";>press release from Dec6</a> states that they will be "shifting their flagship catalog to 10% PCW [post-consumer waste] content beginning in 2007". That's nothing!
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August / January 23, 2007 at 02:13 pm
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I'm actually reminded of the cancellation of the spring bear hunt. Tonnes of southern Ontario environmentalists patted themselves on the back for a job well done. But what really happened? Within two years the bear population was far greater than could be supported by available food sources, and so many, many bears were displaced. They moved into areas where they had regular contact with people. There were some human fatalities, and on top of that, front-line MNR employees were reporting that they often had to destroy more "nuisance bears" (bears that had moved into human communities and become a threat to human safety, essentially) in a *day* than had been previously necessary in a *month*.

It's so much easier to put on some pretty clothes and make fun of a company that sells underwear than it is to, I don't know, actually learn something about forestry management and do useful things like lobby for industry reform.
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Jonathan / January 23, 2007 at 02:13 pm
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I had some slow computer issues that added to me posting this a little early. I wrote in a draft that got deleted that this is only a step. Didn't mean to imply that the campaign to use more PCW products is now all won and done. I agree this does not mean Limited Brands can now claim to be a good neighbour or that big business can learn oh-so-much from this one example. It's a step, that's all.
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adam s / January 23, 2007 at 03:52 pm
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Hmm, I wonder if Sears, IKEA, Canadian Tire and The Bay are all using 100 % PCW for their catalogues? And if not, why cant I hear Forest Ethics whinning ?
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