Website searches for pro-environment pledges

Several new companies have been nominated by ecopledge.com — an environmental watchdog website — as potential targets in their campaign to change corporate environmental policy.

Staples, Dell Computers, Sprint, DaimlerChrysler and Boise Cascade have been announced as possible future targets of boycotts if they don’t comply with environmental standards.

“We ask them to make simple and sensible changes, which are comfortably in their means. We don’t force them to have to go through a major change,” said Rebecca O’Malley, a Los Angeles-based advocate for the group.

Staples is being targeted to provide office supplies that are old-growth free, which would help preserve our nation’s older forests. Dell is being asked to take back and recycle their computers at the end of their use and Sprint is being asked to print its bills on recycled paper. DaimlerChrysler and Boise Cascade are being asked to withdraw their support for two programs that are anit-clean air legislation and anti-preservation of forests.

“Our goal is to have the companies’ change be positive for everyone involved. It will improve policies and improve the companies’ image with consumers and investors,” O’Malley said.

Ecopledge.com has been successful in its campaign since its inception in 1999 by a coalition of environmentalist groups including Free the Planet!, Green Corps and Sierra Student Coalition. Two victories include pressuring General Motors and Ford to resign their memberships from the Global Climate Coalition, which ecopledge.com says doesn’t take global warming seriously. Eventually the Climate Coalition collapsed due to lack of corporate support.

Ecopledge.com uses a six-stage process to move a company from nomination to target status, using member input and coalition approval to choose which companies to pursue.

First, researchers investigate the environmental policies of various companies in all sectors of the economy and identify specific actions that companies can take to protect the environment. In phase two, corporations are listed on the ecopledge.com website for members to read about and vote on.

After considering many factors, one corporation from each economic sector is targeted for change, with the decision coming before Earth Day, April 22. If the company agrees to the change requested, it is removed from the list and thanked. But if it doesn’t agree, ecopledge.com requests to meet and discuss the issue with representatives of the company.

If the company refuses to change or to even discuss the matter, it will be put on notice that it could become the target of a consumer, investor and/or job boycott. If the final stage is reached, students on campuses around the country have signed a pledge stating they will not accept employment with companies named as targets of an ecopledge.com job boycott.

So far there has only been one company who has refused to cooperate. BP Amoco’s unwillingness to avoid drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge resulted in a boycott of their products after no one from the company was willing to discuss the issue.