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Companies to Avoid
These are the companies to watch out for or avoid. These companies are major polluters, and their practices have to be stopped. We can't make our government stop them overnight, but our combined financial choices and buying decisions will make them change their ways. With our efforts they will come to realize that they cannot survive until they change course.
Ikea: This chain buys a quarter of its furniture stock from China, which imports wood from Russia. A recent Washington Post investigation found that even though about half the wood from Russia is illegally harvested, Ikea employs only two foresters in China and three in Russia to track the origins of its wood. A company official acknowledged that the expense of guaranteeing its wood's legality is prohibitive. Ikea has a goal that by 2009, at least 30 percent of its wood will be certified. Currently, only 4 percent of the wood used in its Chinese factories passes that test.
Home Depot: China's timber exports, about 40 percent of which goes to the United States, exceed $17 billion. But while some furniture and building-supply stores have agreed in theory to buy only wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as sustainably and legally harvested, implementation is another story. Only 5 percent of its wood products are made from certified timber.
Armstrong: This company sells endangered Indonesian merbau, and declines to join the certification plan of the Forest Stewardship Council as sustainably and legally harvested.
Bottled water: - Any bottled water company: Americans pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic.
ConocoPhillips: - Unlike BP, Chevron and other major oil producers, ConocoPhillips has made no significant investments in wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies that will be in increasing demand in the years ahead. The resolution filed by Trillium Asset Management and the North Carolina State Treasurer requests that the board of directors prepare a report on how it is responding to rising competitive and regulatory pressure to significantly develop renewable
energy sources. (Trillium Contact: Shelley Alpern 617-423-6655 and NC State Treasurer Contact: Sara Lang, 919-807-3132)
Clean Coal: - Any coal company that promises "Clean Coal": There's not a single coal company that can capture its own carbon emmissions. For more info, check out www.thisisreality.org
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