National Geographic is partnering with the logging industry to destroy our forests.
Over 128 years, National Geographic has inspired millions of us to love the planet. But its magazine comes almost entirely from clearcut forests that destroy our wildlife and our global climate.
National Geographic sources its paper through the “Sustainable Forestry Initiative” (SFI) -- a certification scheme set up by the logging industry to mislead consumers about environmentally-harmful logging.
Let’s tell National Geographic it needs to do better. It needs to start leading the way on forest conservation.
National Geographic: stop using the Sustainable Forestry Initiative -- and commit to a truly sustainable paper procurement policy.
National Geographic only uses 10% of recycled paper for its cover. The rest of the magazine comes from 100% virgin tree fiber. With a circulation of 6.8 million, that’s hundreds of thousands of trees being chopped down to publish stories about our amazing natural world.
The magazine says it uses certification schemes to ensure its paper is sustainable. But one of those schemes is SFI, whose certification fails to adequately protect old growth forests and habitats or limit the use of clearcutting. It is basically meaningless -- little more than an industry PR program.
Nat Geo says it is committed to “conducting our business as sustainably and responsibly as possible both in our direct actions and in our impacts through our suppliers”. But it is contributing to the clearance of vast areas of natural forests into monoculture tree plantations that harm wildlife.
As a global community, SumOfUs is perfectly placed to take on a global retail brand like National Geographic, which relies on its reputation to sell magazines. If enough of us speak out, we can get Nat Geo to stop destroying our forests.
Will you tell National Geographic to stop using SFI and commit to a truly sustainable procurement policy?