May 14, 2002
By Peyton Knight
Another year, another day, another hour, another environmental attack
on industry. It’s a perpetual cycle that grows more vicious with each
company’s capitulation.
The latest victim of the eco-extremists’ onslaught is the popular
office-supply chain, Staples. The attackers are the usual array of
anti-capitalist, ‘60s rejects: Free the Planet, Rainforest Action
Network, Earth First!, and the National Forest Protection Alliance. Their
demands are familiar. Staples must start doing things THEIR way, or the
long-hairs in the parking lot with their little signs will never leave.
They will frighten customers and drive away business until their demands
are met.
Specifically, the eco-extremists want Staples to stop selling wood and
paper products that are made from old-growth trees. The irony is that this
is contradictory to forest health. Trees are a renewable resource.
Everyone uses wood products every day. Old-growth trees are thinned from
the forest, paving the way for new-growth to take place. There’s no net
loss of timber. In fact, ignoring old-growth trees completely is bad
forest management and is unhealthy for the environment. These trees die
and become infested with disease and insects. They become fuel for
catastrophic wildfires.
Staples makes its living selling wood-based office products to the
public at affordable prices. Their entire well-being and future success is
reliant on healthy forests that supply them with timber. Why on earth
would they spoil the very fountain of their existence? Market-based
incentive tells us that they would do the exact opposite. It’s in
Staples best interest to promote good stewardship of forestland, and that’s
what they do.
The so-called environmentalists, on the other hand, have zero incentive
to promote forest health. Their incentive lies in their power to shakedown
corporations and force them to their knees. Their concern has less to do
with the environment, and more to do with coercing companies to buy their
chosen recycled products and only use wood products that are certified by their
organizations. It’s not eco-awareness, it’s eco-extortion.
Staples, like so many other companies before them, finds itself between
a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, if they dig in and fight the
attackers they risk losing customers in the short run, due to all the
protesting and ruckus-raising that will take place outside their doors. On
the other hand, if they give in to the bullies, they will be making
expensive concessions that will be passed on to their customers, thus
curtailing sales and slowly killing their business over the long run. What’s
more is that capitulation won’t rid themselves of the bullies. It will
only invite more, similar attacks, because once these eco-tyrants taste
blood, they can’t get enough.
The campaign against Staples is similar to the one waged against fellow
timber-product companies: Home Depot, Centex Homes, and Lowe’s. Home
Depot fended off attacks and vandalism for two years before eventually
caving to the demands of the extremists. Centex Homes capitulated as well.
Lowe’s committed the cardinal sin of giving in to the protesters before
the protests even began—hoping to win brownie points with their enemies
and use the environmental PR to edge out their competitors. As if they won’t
feel the repercussions of this cowardly underhandedness down the road.
Hopefully, Staples will choose to fight back. The industrial graveyard
is littered with the remains of companies who sought to appease their
green tormenters. There is no such thing as appeasement, only more
attacks. The goal of these environmental groups is not a cleaner
environment, but the death of industry. The victims of this tyranny are
not limited to the fat cats heading up the Staples chain. The American
consumer is a victim, for he relies on the readily available products that
Staples provides. The store’s employees are victims, as they may face
lay-offs due to shrinking profit margins. And the environment falls
victim, as forests suffer from negligence and lack of proper maintenance.
Meanwhile, the greens sit back and rejoice in all the misery they cause.
