ACTION ALERT!! ACTION ALERT!! ACTION ALERT!!
STOP STAPLES FROM SELLING ENDANGERED FOREST PAPER!!!

WHAT- Call and Fax in Day to Tom Stemberg, CEO of Staples
WHEN- Monday, August 27th, 2001
WHY- To flood his phone and fax lines in conjunction with the Staples
Shareholders Meeting on the 27th in Boston

-Tom Stemberg's direct line is 508.253.8617 (or 508.253.5000).  

Or call Staples' order number: 1-800-3STAPLE

Call and say that you would like to leave a message for Mr. Stemberg
asking him to stop destroying forests by doing the following five
things:
- Immediately phase out of all wood and paper products made from old
growth fiber.
- Immediately phase out of all wood and paper products made from fiber
from US public lands.
- Set a target of 50% post consumer content for all paper products and
begin
an immediate phase out of all products that are 100% virgin wood fiber.
- Make available 100% post consumer paper and paper that is made from
agricultural fiber in all stores or other points of sale.
- Educate all employees, customers, and suppliers on the
benefits of recycled
paper, recycling, the availability of alternative fibers, and the
benefits of
healthy forest resources.

-Tom Stemberg's fax is 508.253.8955. We want to flood their fax
machine on August 27th with letters from across the country demanding
that Staples do the five things listed above. On the bottom of it
'please print out on 100% post-consumer recycled paper'.

NOTE: In the past, they have changed their phone/fax to a machine so
that they don't have to deal with all of the calls. If this happens,
just call their order line (1.800.3staple) and jam that up all day !!

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The Staples Factsheet
STAPLES - NUMBER 1 IN FOREST DESTRUCTION PAPER DETROYS FORESTS,
STAPLES DESTROYS FORESTS

The Paper Story
Every day we are losing more of our forests to the production of
paper products. Paper production is one of the primary reasons our
forests are being clear-cut at such a dizzying pace. And many of
these products - office paper, post-it pads, paper towels, napkins,
etc. - are used once and then thrown away.

The pulp and paper industry is the largest single industrial wood
consumer in the US and in the world. Pulp mills in the United States
consume more than 12,000 square miles of forest each year; almost
half of all trees logged are turned into paper, and the percentage is
increasing.

Currently, 90% of the world's paper is manufactured from wood pulp,
but in the United States less than 1% of the total pulp produced is
manufactured from nonwood, tree free alternatives. In the US, our per
capita paper usage tips the scales at 735 pounds of paper per year.

More than half of our paper in the US comes from Southern forests,
the region containing the greatest biodiversity in the continental
US. Office paper also contains pulp made from old growth trees - such
as majestic 1000-year-old Douglas firs from the Pacific Northwest, or
Canada's Great Bear Rainforest.

Paper comprises from 40 to 50 percent of the trash in typical landfills.

AND THE STAPLES STORY

Staples is the largest and fastest growing office super store in the
world, with 1,100 stores and locations in 48 states plus Washington,
DC and the UK, Canada, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands. Staples
sale of paper is driving the destruction of our endangered forests
worldwide including in US National Forests, the forests of the
southeast, and old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.

Staples is opening new stores at an alarming rate: during 1999
Staples opened its 1000th store and in a single day opened 22 retail
stores. As the number of Staples stores increases so does the number
of forests destroyed.

Environmentalists have been trying to persuade Staples to stop
selling old growth for over a year. Staples has refused.

It is critical that we demand that Staples that stop destroying
forests. We are calling on Staples to:

* Immediately phase out of all wood and paper products made
from old growth fiber.
* Immediately phase out of all wood and paper products made
from fiber from US public lands.
* Set a target of 50% post consumer content for all paper
products and begin an immediate phase out of all products that are
100% virgin wood fiber.
* Make available 100% post consumer paper and paper that is
made from agricultural fiber in all stores or other points of sale.
* Educate all employees, customers, and suppliers on the
benefits of recycled paper, recycling, the availability of
alternative fibers, and the benefits of healthy forest resources.

We need to act now. Experts expect worldwide paper and paperboard
consumption will increase 90% from 1993 levels by 2010.



History of the Staples Campaign

In February of 1999, the Coastal Rainforest Coalition sent a letter
to Tom Stemberg, the CEO of Staples. For the next 18 months they
attempted to contact numerous Staples officials, attempting
encouraging them to take a positive step towards protecting forests.
Their efforts were met with silence. In August, 2000,a group of
environmentalists including Dogwood Alliance, Free The Planet!, and
Forest Ethics (formerly Coastal Rainforest Coalition) came together
to launch a national grassroots campaign targeting Staples. Staples
was sent a final letter, informing them of their status as a target
of a national campaign. Two weeks later, Staples sent two of its own
vice presidents and a vice president from International Paper to
Seattle to meet with the Coastal Rainforest Coalition and Dogwood
Alliance on November 9, 2000. At the meeting, Staples '
representatives explained possible actions they could take in
response to the demands. This included the increased visibility and
availability of recycled products. They also indicated some general
agreement with our goals. However, they were unable to commit to any
of the demands.

On November 15, 2000, activists across the country descended on 75
Staples locations. This Staples day of action was three times
larger than the launch of the Home Depot campaign, with a variety of
creative actions. Here are some highlights from the day: At the
College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA students performed
street theater outside of the Staples. They held signs, wore tree
and earth costumes, held a big banner, and made a lot of noise in
general. One student dressed as a Staples logger ran around on the
sidewalk cutting down other students dressed as trees. The students
presented a certificate of environmental destruction for the store to
the store manager during the protest. In Ithaca, NY, students from
Cornell University, Trumansburg High school, and members of the
Ithaca community joined together to send a united message to Staples.
They chanted, held signs and passed out fliers exposing Staples.
They were so effective in getting their message out that Staples
customers decided to shop elsewhere. The Staples manager was also
supportive, even agreeing to fax the demands of the protesters to the
Staples headquarters! Meanwhile, people in the San Francisco Bay area
dressed up in lab coats and gave "dead forest tours " inside Staples.
The tour guides told customers what forests were being destroyed by
producing various products at Staples.

In February, 2001 southern activists escalated the campaign by
demonstrating inside of a Staple's store in Atlanta, GA. Eight
activists were arrested after blockading the paper aisle with their
arms locked into tree stumps, calling for an end to forest
destruction. Two activists unfurled a banner from the roof that
read "On Sale Now: Clearcut Southern Forests," while approximately
50 demonstrators rallied outside. The event was covered on two major
TV networks and in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The second National Day of Action was held on March 28, 2001. On
this day, events were held at over 100 Staple's stores to demand that
the company stop destroying our forests. Again the actions varied
according to the creativity of the activists. Some delivered "forest
destroyer" awards to local stores, some staged civil disobedience,
there were more than 10 stores that had banners hung from the roof,
and many demonstrations outside the stores with media coverage.

This campaign has drawn tremendous media coverage, which is crucial
in order to educate the public about forest destruction and in order
to pressure Staples to begin the sale of paper products made from
sustainable sources. Hundreds of local newspapers, television and
radio stations have covered the campaign. Also, the Atlanta Journal
Constitution, the largest newspaper in the south, ran a front page
story on the campaign. The campaign was also covered in a feature
story on the Jim Leher newshour in July, 2001.

In Staple's hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, activists brought the
message that "Staple's Destroys Forests" to baseball fans by flying a
banner over the Red Sox game on June 10th. Thousands of fans
received a baseball card featuring CEO Tom Stemburg, the MVP of
forests destruction. For a copy of the card, visit
www.stopstaples.net.

Most recently, the Dogwood Alliance and Forest Ethics again met with
Staple's executives in June, 2001. Staple's outlined the changes
they have made in their stores because of the campaign. Staple's
store brand paper, their best seller, will soon be 30% post consumer
recycled. They have also increased the recycled fiber content in
file folders and other paper products. Also, Staple's will be
implementing a pilot education project in some of their stores to
increase consumer awareness about the benefits of recycled paper.
The company will begin to survey their suppliers to find out if any
are sourcing pulp from old growth or US National Forests. While
these are positive steps, Staple's has not agreed to any of the
demands of campaign, nor have they gone far enough to relieve
pressure off of our forests.

It is critical that we demand that Staples stop destroying forests.
We are calling on Staples to:
- Immediately phase out of all wood and paper products made from old
growth fiber.
- Immediately phase out of all wood and paper products made from
fiber from US public lands.
- Set a target of 50% post consumer content for all paper products
and begin an immediate phase out of all products that are 100% virgin
wood fiber.
- Make available 100% post consumer paper and paper that is made from
agricultural fiber in all stores or other points of sale.
- Educate all employees, customers, and suppliers on the benefits of
recycled paper, recycling, the availability of alternative fibers,
and the benefits of healthy forest resources.

For more information, visit www.stopstaples.net or contact Becky
Crooker, ForestEthics, 816.279.5051 or rcrooker@coin.org.