Boston University students helped enact changes in the environmental policy of office supply company Staples, Inc. after two years of protests from environmental groups.
The new guidelines will phase out purchases of paper products from endangered forests, create an environmental affairs division to monitor the progress and work toward achieving an average of 30 percent post-consumer-recycled content across all paper products Staples sells. Currently, some of the brands of paper Staples sells contain 50 or even 100 percent recycled content, though on average its products are less than 10 percent recycled.
‘It’s a good step in the right direction,’ said Kalman Gacs, a College of Fine Arts senior who has been working on the campaign, which has received assistance from national environmental organizations, for more than a year.
Gacs said the small group of BU students involved has protested outside area Staples stores and a gubernatorial debate and has taken part in other local demonstrations with students from Boston College, Wellesley College and Tufts University.
‘Staples’ new policy is the beginning of the end of the practice of destroying endangered forests to make disposable paper products,’ said Cindy Kang, recruitment coordinator of the Boston-based environmental protection group Green Corps, in a press release. ‘This is the result of efforts from concerned citizens across the country publicly demanding Staples stop selling our forests.’
Members of the campaign concentrated their efforts on ‘bird-dogging’ Governor-elect Mitt Romney during his campaign, Gacs said, since Romney is a shareholder in the Framingham-based Staples and a former board member who could have potentially helped change policies.
‘It’s possible this helped push them over the edge,’ Gacs said of the students’ efforts within Massachusetts.
According to Staples spokesman Owen Davis. Davis, Staples has long promoted recyclable products and has backed recycling and energy conservation programs.
‘The new policy reflects our commitment to being an environmental leader,’ Davis said.
He credited Green Corps, the BU students and other activists with catching the attention of Staples management.
‘They made us take a closer look at what we were doing,’ Davis said.
Both Davis and Gacs said they hope the progress the new policy demonstrates will influence other office-supply corporations, like Office Max and Office Depot, to institute similar reforms.
‘Staples wasn’t the worst [in terms of environmental impact of their products], just the biggest, and we hope the industry leader can lead the others,’ Gacs said.
‘We see this as an industry milestone that will serve interest of the environment over the long term,’ Davis added. ‘If it affects other stores, all the better.’