March, 05 2015, 09:15am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Eddie Scher, ForestEthics, eddie@forestethics.org, 415-815-7027
Donna Fleming Runyon, 3M, dlfleming@mmm.com, 651-736-7646
ForestEthics Applauds 3M's New Industry-Leading Sustainability Plan: Revised Policies Enhance Protection of Endangered Forests, Local Communities and Wild Places
Bellingham, WA
ForestEthics today announced support of a new 3M sustainability policy that will ensure that the maker of Post-it Notes will have a minimal impact on forests, wildlife and human rights.
3M's paper-based products and packaging require pulp and paper from sources around the world. Working in collaboration with ForestEthics and Greenpeace, the company launched a review of all of its pulp and paper procurement expectations to ensure its materials are produced from sustainably-logged timber. 3M will now hold paper and pulp suppliers accountable to one of the highest standards in the industry for environmental protection and respect of human rights.
Key elements of the new 3M paper policy:
3M will work with suppliers to trace the origin for all of the wood, paper and pulp it buys and will not source fiber that was obtained in a manner that threatens high-conservation value forests, as defined by guidance developed by the High Conservation Value Resource Network.
3M will ensure that its suppliers are granted free, prior and informed consent by indigenous peoples and local communities before logging operations occur
3M will no longer promote or use the SFI label.
3M has hired additional staff to implement its policy worldwide, and has already begun training in the implementation of its updated policy.
3M will publicly report progress in evaluating its fiber's chain of custody, establish benchmarks for recycled fiber and tree-free fiber and report on those, and report on the amount of FSC fiber used.
3M will publish semi-annual updates of its progress on implementing its policy. These updates will be available on the 3M and The Forest Trust websites.
3M will cease doing business with suppliers who do not adhere to its principles, and has already taken action to sever business with suppliers out of compliance with its new standards.
3M is taking steps to reduce the amount of paper and pulp that it uses and increase its use of recycled paper and fiber.
3M is working closely with its pulp and paper suppliers to ensure adherence to the newly revised sourcing policy has already cancelled its contract with the Indonesian Royal Golden Eagle Group-owned suppliers because of their unsustainable logging and human rights records and has committed to helping them raise their performance, if necessary, in order to meet the requirements. 3M has also informed controversial logging company Resolute Forest Products that it is concerned about fiber it receives from the company due to fractious First Nations relationships, logging of caribou habitat and High Conservation Areas. 3M is considering alternative supply arrangements should Resolute fail to expeditiously quickly reverse these practices.
"Consumers will know that any 3M product they buy is made from forests that were responsibly managed and harvested," said Jean Sweeney, vice president, 3M Environmental, Health, Safety and Sustainability Operations. "This policy will ensure that all of the tree fiber that goes into 3M's innovative consumer products also meets 3M's high standards for protecting the environment."
ForestEthics, which is calling off its multi-year campaign against 3M, and Greenpeace applauded the new policy.
"Consumers are increasingly demanding assurance that the products they buy are produced in way that protect our environment and respect human rights - the kind of transparency and leadership 3M offers in this revised policy represents an important step forward for the industry," said Todd Paglia, executive director of ForestEthics. "ForestEthics appreciates 3M's commitment to continuous improvement and looks forward to our continued collaboration."
"By cutting business ties with controversial forest destroyers like the Royal Golden Eagle Group, 3M is demonstrating that it is serious about turning its new policies into real-world change" said Rolf Skar, forest campaign director for Greenpeace."
"3M will now know exactly where its pulp and paper is coming from," said Jim Ace, ForestEthics campaigner. "3M will eliminate its use of the SFI label, and make sure fiber from old growth forests, tropical rainforests, and indigenous lands doesn't make its way into the products we use every day. This policy is good for 3M, it's good for our forests, and it's good for consumers."
Founded in 2000, ForestEthics is a nonprofit environmental organization with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile. Our mission is to protect Endangered Forests and wild places, wildlife, and human wellbeing--one of our focus areas is climate change, which compromises all of our efforts if left unchecked. We catalyze environmental leadership among industry, governments and communities by running hard-hitting and highly effective campaigns that leverage public dialogue and pressure to achieve our goals.
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The amendment would "cut billions in offensive military funding to Israel from the proposed national security supplemental package," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. The package, approved by the Republican-controlled House over the weekend, includes $17 billion in unconditional military assistance to the Israeli government, which stands accused on the world stage of perpetrating genocide in Gaza.
The senator said he would also offer an amendment to "protect essential humanitarian operations" in the Gaza Strip, where millions of people are facing the possibility of starvation due to Israel's suffocating and illegal blockade. At least 28 children under the age of 12 have starved to death in Gaza in recent weeks.
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— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 23, 2024
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The Senate vote on whether to hand Israel billions more in unconditional military aid will come as the country's military appears poised to escalate its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 34,000 people so far.
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Over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by U.S.-backed Israeli troops, and Columbia University students have been suspended and arrested by New York Police Department officers in recent days for protesting the slaughter—which led to a walkout by the Ivy League institution's faculty on Monday.
The Guardian reported that "hundreds of members of the teaching cohort at Columbia walked out in solidarity with the students who were arrested" while "students put protest tents back up in the middle of campus on Monday after they were torn down last week when more than 100 arrests were made."
Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of IfNotNow, a Jewish-led U.S. group that organizes against Israel's apartheid, declared: "Solidarity with these faculty members. Shame on establishment politicians and agitators who are smearing the anti-war protest at Columbia as anything other than what it is: a courageous stand for freedom and peace."
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Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—a critic of Israel's war on Gaza whose own daughter, Isra Hirsi, was suspended from Columbia's Barnard College last week for "standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide," as the 21-year-old junior put it—also noted the faculty walkout and "nationwide Gaza solidarity movement."
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"Procedural irregularity, a lack of transparency about the university's decision-making, and the extraordinary involvement of the NYPD all threaten the university's legitimacy within its own community and beyond its gates," they wrote. "We urge the university to conform student discipline to clear and well-established procedures that respect the rule of law."
In a statement early Monday, several hours before the walkout, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik—who last week enabled NYPD arrests of students at the encampment—announced in her first statement since the sweep that all classes would be virtual "to deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps."
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"Columbia University has actively created a hostile environment for students who are Palestinian or who support Palestinian freedom. Additionally, the administration's actions have made the campus much less safe for Jewish students," JVP said.
According to JVP:
Instead of listening to the calls of Columbia and Barnard students to divest from the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government, the university has called in the NYPD to arrest students, suspended them, and even expelled them. At present 85 students, 15 of whom are Jewish, are suspended.
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— Raqib Hameed Naik (@raqib_naik) April 21, 2024
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Modi's remarks came a day after India's seven-step election of 543 members of the Lok Sabha, or lower legislative house, began. Modi is running for a third consecutive term. He's being challenged by INC President Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the upper legislative house. Results will be announced on June 4.
Kharge responded to Modi's remarks by blasting the "panic-filled" address as "not only a hate speech but also a well-thought-out ploy to divert attention" by the prime minister, the BJP, and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—a fascist-inspired political and paramilitary movement whose brand of Hindu supremacy heavily influenced the rise of the BJP.
"Lying for power, making baseless references to things, and making false accusations on opponents is the specialty of the training of RSS and BJP," Kharge said, adding that Indians "are no longer going to fall prey to this lie."
Indian journalist and
Washington Post opinion columnist Rana Ayyub said on social media that "this is not a dogwhistle, this is a targeted, direct, brazen hate speech against a community."
Thousands of Indians petitioned the country's Election Commission seeking punitive action against Modi.
"The prime minister, while campaigning... made a speech on April 21 in Rajasthan that has disturbed the sentiments of millions of Constitution-respecting citizens of India," one petition states. "The speech is dangerous and a direct attack on the Muslims of India."
Muslim groups around the world also slammed Modi's speech, which the U.S.-based Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) called "hateful and dangerous."
"It is unconscionable, but not surprising, that far-right Hindutva leader Narendra Modi would target Indian Muslims with a hateful and dangerous diatribe despite his role as the leader of a nation with such a diverse religious heritage," said CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad.
"We again call on the Biden administration to declare India a 'country of particular croncern' over its discriminatory and violent policies targeting Muslims and other religious minorities," Awad added. "Global Islamophobia is alive and well in India and must be confronted before it escalates to something even worse."
South Asia historian Audrey Truschke, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, accused Modi of "straight-up fascism."
"Modi had a history of encouraging mass violence against Muslims," Truschke added. "So we should all take his words seriously."
Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat in February 2002 when a train full of Hindu pilgrims was set ablaze, killing 58 people. The cause of the disaster remains disputed, but Modi was quick to blame Muslims for the fire. In a three-day paroxysm of intercommunal bloodletting, Hindu mobs murdered at least hundreds—and perhaps thousands—of Muslim men, women, and children. Many women and girls were raped. More than 250 Hindus were also killed during what came to be called the Gujarat riots, during which an estimated 150,000 people were also forcibly displaced.
A team sent by the British government concluded that Modi was "directly responsible for a climate of impunity" that enabled the pogrom. However, a special investigation commissioned by the Indian Supreme Court cleared him of complicity in 2012. Modi's alleged role in the massacre led to a U.S. visa ban during the George W. Bush administration that was lifted during the tenure of former President Barack Obama after Modi became prime minister.
Deadly violence against religious minorities and others has increased during BJP rule. And while the U.S. State Department has perennially criticized the Indian government's human rights record, Modi was courted by both the Trump and Biden administrations. Last year, the White House literally rolled out the red carpet for Modi, who was lavishly feted by President Joe Biden and invited to speak before a rare joint session of Congress. Several progressive lawmakers boycotted the address.
Earlier this year, Progressive International's (PI) executive body used Modi's consecration of a highly controversial Hindu temple on the former site of a 16th-century Muslim mosque destroyed by a Hindu nationalist mob as an opportunity to issue a warning about the accelerating erosion of democracy in India.
"The Modi government has made a decisive move to overthrow India's secular constitution in the name of a new Hindu supremacist nation," PI's statement asserted. "As prime minister, Modi has pushed this Hindu nationalism as India's dominant political force: banning the hijab in schools, introducing 'anti-conversion' laws, abusing municipal forces to demolish Muslim households and shops in cities, and pushing for a 'uniform civil code' in law."
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