Cataloging Change

Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, has revealed a new forest protection policy for its paper sourcing that includes several environmental measures and ensures that the pulp for the company’s catalog paper will not come from endangered forests. The company also signed a new paper contract in accordance with its new policy.

“We consider environmental stewardship to be an essential part of our brand and we’re proud to take a leadership role in the catalog industry,” Tom Katzenmeyer, Limited Brands senior vice president of community and philanthropy says.

Two years ago, Forest Ethics launched a campaign against Limited Brands/Victoria’s Secret and began discussions with the company shortly afterward. Since then, Limited Brands has increased its use of post-consumer recycled content, transitioning its clearance catalogs to sustainable paper with 80 percent post-consumer recycled content.

Limited Brands environmental measures include:

·        Partnering with a paper supplier to eliminate all pulp supplied by the Boreal Forst in Alberta’s Rocky Mountain Foothills and British Columbia’s Inland Temperate Rainforest;

·        Shifting its catalogs to either 10 percent post-consumer scrap or at least 10 percent Forest Stewardship Council content in 2007;

·        Partnering with its supplier to shift four of its mills to Forest Stewardship Council certification;

·        Reducing overall catalog paper;

·        Committing to continual improvement of the environmental attributes of catalog paper and paper use to be audited by an independent third party;

·        Committing to phasing out sourcing from endangered forests; and

·        Committing $1 million to research and advocacy to protect endangered forests and ensure leadership in the catalog industry.