Stand.earth (formerly ForestEthics) is a
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
environmental organization
An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements
that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces.
In this sense the environm ...
founded in 2000. The organization protects endangered forests by transforming corporate policy and governmental laws in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
. Stand.earth uses public education, advocacy, protest, negotiation and non-violent
direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to othe ...
tactics to achieve its goals.
Stand.earth has offices in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...
, in Canada, as well as
Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (lo ...
, and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
, in the United States. Todd J. Paglia is the current executive director of the non-profit.
Mission
Stand.earth challenges the fossil fuel industry, protects healthy forests, and reduces global climate emissions"
Campaigns
Stand.earth has campaigned against pipelines and oil trains, protecting forests through consumer campaigns against Starbucks coffee cups, and reducing emissions from the international clothing and shipping industries.
As ForestEthics, Stand.earth is most known for its Victoria's Dirty Secret and Do Not Mail junk mail reduction campaigns of the 2000s. Campaigns of the 2010s include efforts to protect North America's
boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces ...
, to stop the
Alberta tar sands oil development project, to change the paper industry in the United States, and to expose the
Sustainable Forestry Initiative
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a sustainability organization operating in the U.S. and Canada that works across four pillars: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI has two youth education initiatives: Project Learnin ...
as a false
greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on " whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aim ...
scheme of the U.S.
timber industry
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including Beam (structure), beams and plank (wood), planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as fini ...
. In 2013, ForestEthics' Honor the
Sacred Headwaters campaign led by the
Tahltan Nation resulted in
Shell oil company
Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States-based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation "oil major" which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,000 ...
withdrawing its plans for
hydraulic fracturing
Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frac ...
, or "
fracking
Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frac ...
," to extract
coal-bed methane gas at the convergence of three watersheds in the Klappan Valley of northwest British Columbia Another result of the campaign included the B.C. government declaring the 4,000 square kilometre area permanently off-limits to gas development.
History
ForestEthics was born out of
Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS) —a group of residents on
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...
who originally organized themselves in 1979 to block logging company Macmillan Bloedel from clearcutting a local mountain range— which then became a part of Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition in 1994. ForestEthics was officially founded in 2000. The organization has affected the environmental and paper policies of corporations including Staples,
Office Depot
The ODP Corporation is an American office supply holding company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company has combined annual sales of approximately $11 billion, and employs about 38,000 associates with businesses in the United States. ...
,
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer known for high visibility marketing and branding, starting with a popular catalog and followed by an annual fashion show with supermodels dubbed Angels. As the largest r ...
,
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
, and
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. ForestEthics was rebranded as Stand.earth in 2016.
Controversy
In January 2012, when Stand.earth was still known as ForestEthics, Senior Communications Manager Andrew Frank claimed through an
affidavit
An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...
to
The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pr ...
that the
Prime Minister's Office Prime Minister's Office may refer to:
* Prime Minister's Office (Albania)
* Prime Minister's Office (Australia)
* Prime Minister's Office (Bangladesh)
* Prime Minister's Office (Brunei)
* Office of the Prime Minister (Cambodia)
* Office of the ...
(PMO) of Canada, under Stephen Harper, had instructed the CEO of funding organization Tides Canada Foundation to remove financial support for ForestEthics or face the "take down" of all of Tides's charitable projects. According to Frank, the PMO representatives referred to ForestEthics as an "enemy of the government of Canada" and "an enemy of the people of Canada." Andrew Frank stated that the threats of the PMO's office were a direct result of ForestEthics' role in protesting the
Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline.
Notes
{{reflist
External links
Stand.earth, Official siteFacebook pageTwitter account Huffingtonpost news
Organizations established in 2000
Environmental charities
Environmental organizations based in British Columbia
Environmental organizations based in the United States