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Should Victoria's Secret stay virgin?

Not according to environmentalists working to save Canada's Great Boreal Forest, source of much of the virgin wood used to produce the lingerie purveyor's catalogues.

Forest Ethics and other groups are asking consumers to contact Victoria's Secret and request that the Ohio-based company switch all its catalogues to recycled paper. According to a recent story in Time, the queen of underwear retail cranks out more than a million catalogues a day -- many of them mailed in this time of Yuletide -- and only 7 percent or less are on recycled paper.

Underlying the environmentalists' push is a desire to preserve a forest that covers some 58 percent of Canada, from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Yukon. It shelters bears, caribou and wolves, but perhaps more tangible to Americans is the fact that many of our migratory birds spend their summers in the Great White North when it turns green.

The Boreal Initiative recently announced that Canada's Ethical Funds Company -- grandaddy of Canada's socially responsible investment firms -- had signed on to support the initiative, along with The Nature Conservancy.

But the real work is to be done among those out there getting their hands dirty doing the capitalism thing, such as Victoria's Secret, activists say. Their strategy is to first target the biggest names in the catalogue industry, and work down from there.

In addition to telling Victoria's Secret to give the slip to virgin wood, "the other piece of the puzzle is congratulating -- it's a pretty short list, but -- congratulating the companies that are doing the right thing," said Sue Libenson of the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

That would be Dell, Williams-Sonoma and Norm Thompson Outfitters, according to naughty-and-nice list by Forest Ethics. The list of those that Forest Ethics is targeting for change begins with Victoria's Secret, includes JC Penney and L.L. Bean as well as Seattle-based REI and Eddie Bauer.

Posted by at December 21, 2005 6:40 p.m.
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