Too Many Logs in the Catalog - "Victoria's Dirty Secret" Fights Massive Deforestation

Too Many Logs in the Catalog
"Victoria's Dirty Secret" Fights Massive Deforestation

Victoria's Secret stores across the US received special attention December 2, when organizers dressed in lingerie mobilized over 90 protests against forest destruction for catalog production. According to ForestEthics, a San Fransisco based group "dedicated to protecting forests by redirecting U.S. markets torwards ecologically sound alternatives," the lingerie company mails out a million catalogs each day, most of which contain no recycled content. Chants like, "Victoria's got a secret, a dirty little lie, they're cutting down the forests and they won't tell you just why," echoed through mall corridors. Banners reading, "Victoria's Dirty Secret: They Destroy Endangered Forests" and “Catalogs=Clearcuts” unfurled near storefronts to provide a message to customers.

“There’s nothing sexy about cutting down vast swaths of forests, in some cases clearcuts almost half the size of Golden Gate Park, to make things like junk mail and catalogs,” said Joshua Martin of ForestEthics. “Five acres of forest are cut every minute in Canada, over half of it to make paper. As a leader of the catalog industry, Victoria’s Secret has the power to change that.”

Of the estimated 395 million catalogs produced each year, almost every page is made from new wood pulp, much of it coming from Canada's boreal forests. This forest encompasses an area 12 times the size of California, yet less than eight percent receive legal protection from large scale industrial development.

No arrests resulted from this first national day of action, although shopping mall security guards cut short the protest in Columbus, OH, removing protesters from the mall within five minutes of their arrival. Victoria's Secret and their parent company, Limited Brands, house their headquarters in Columbus.

In Portland, OR, activists had planned two demonstrations, but when they arrived at the second location, the store closed for the day. In Des Moines, IA, students were asked to leave after they performed their “Logging for Catalogs” play on a balcony just above the store.

In Medford, OR, a group in costume distributed leaflets within a store, and in San Francisco, Victoria's Secret hired a public relations firm representative to avoid direct communication between protestors and store employees. Across the continent, in Asheville, NC, a protestor dressed as a Santa dropped off a holiday "lump of stump" by delivering two stumps to a store entrance, complete with a red bow.

In the wake of the protests, The Billings Gazette, in Billings, MT, published a business AP story about the issue. Limited Brands spokesperson Anthony Hebron told the AP the company would mail out fewer catalogs and their recycled content could rise to 50 percent next year. As public pressure mounts, Hebron claimed the company to be a leader in waste reduction and paper recycling, citing their office paper recycling as evidence.

Hebron said, "I guess I don't understand what more we can do."

Related URLs:
www.victoriasdirtysecret.net,
rogueimc.org,
chapelhill.indymedia.org
o2collective.org,
www.forestethics.org