We are committed to “phasing out paper procured from endangered forests” (limitedbrands.com). For a company that claims to be “proud of [their] partnership with ForestEthics to raise environmental standards in the catalogue industry” (limitedbrands.com), it is nonsensical for them to be using any unsustainable practices in their marketing campaigns. Each year Victoria’s Secret, a division of Limited Brands, sends out approximately 400 million paper advertisements to households across the globe. Only 10% of the paper used for those advertisements is acquired from companies with sustainable forestry practices. Overall the company has the purchasing power to trigger an industry-wide shift towards recycled paper, which they claim to be working towards, but instead chooses to merely be ambiguously “phasing out” paper from endangered forests.

A campaign known as “Victoria’s Dirty Secret” was introduced by ForestEthics in 2005 to increase awareness of the unsustainable practices of the company, but to date the only improvements have been the increase from 0% sustainable paper to 10% sustainable paper – not the anticipated results. It is misleading for Limited Brands to claim that they are working with ForestEthics when ForestEthics is still campaigning against the company’s practices, and unethical for them to state that their paper policy is environmentally friendly while their practices continue to be unsustainable.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/02/take_action_vic_1.php

http://www.limitedbrands.com/responsibility/environment/paper_products.aspx