After more than two-and-a-half years of hard work, Ecopledge, a national organization affiliated with Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, celebrated a victory Wednesday with respect to its Paper Campaign.
The Paper Campaign is a coalition of dozens of organizations around the country, including Ecopledge, which protested for the use of more environmentally friendly practices by office supplies giant Staples.
\Staples uses old-growth wood in their office supplies,"" said Shane Siemers, a UW-Madison senior and WisPIRG/Ecopledge campaign coordinator. ""There are reasonable alternatives, both from recycled and from new-growth forests. One of the most important things we are going to do if we are going to stop our last remaining virgin forests from being cut down is to stop the demand for old-growth wood.""
UW-Madison students active in Ecopledge said they had much to celebrate Wednesday after Staples announced it would meet their demands, primarily because of the pressure from Ecopledge organizations across the country. In response, a two-hour festival was held at Library Mall to commemorate the landmark changes announced by the office supplies retailer.
Staples' new environmentally-friendly guidelines ensure the phasing out of paper products made from old-growth forests, an average 30 percent recycled content across all paper products it sells and the creation of an environmental affairs division within the company.
Part of Wednesday's festivities included helping to get passers-by acquainted with Huggy the Tree. Lindsay Weber, WisPIRG Ecopledge campaign media intern and a UW-Madison freshman, explained the purpose of Huggy while sporting the full size costume of a tree.
""This is Huggy the Tree ... a prop that we have used in our campaign so far,"" Weber said. ""We went around having people taking pictures hugging the tree, and sending them in to Staples. We are going to send them in again to Staples to say, 'Thanks, people care, and I'm glad you care too.'""
Members of WisPIRG, Ecopledge and all the other organizations involved in turning protesters' dreams into a reality said they hope that this will be the initiative that will force a change of policy throughout the entire office supply industry.
For more information, contact WisPIRG at 251-1918.
