New Hampshire Drops Boise Contract Over Old Growth Logging
The state of New Hampshire has cancelled its contract with Boise Office Solutions because what state officials call the company’s outdated logging and distribution practices.
Prior to the announcement of the cancellation Monday, Boise had supplied office products to state institutions including prisons and schools.
Conservationists, in particular the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), hailed the decision. RAN contends that Boise is the nation’s largest destroyer of old growth forests.
“State institutions and companies in business with Boise are in the business of old growth forest destruction, and New Hampshire has made it clear that’s a place it doesn’t want to be,” said Sharon Smith, old growth organizer, RAN.
Smith says New Hampshire joins a long list of companies and institutions that have cancelled their contracts with Boise as a result of the environmental concerns about the company’s logging practices.
She cited Kinko’s, Levi Strauss, L.L. Bean, Patagonia, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Notre Dame as former customers who have severed ties with the company.
RAN hopes that continued pressure will bring an end to old growth logging. The organization says some 75 percent of the world’s old growth forests have been logged or degraded, and less than five percent of U.S. old growth forests remain.
Boise has come under increasing scrutiny for its record of environmental stewardship. Although the company says protecting the environment is one of its highest priorities, conservation groups, including RAN and Students Eliminating Environmental Destruction, have launched active campaigns to pressure customers of Boise to look elsewhere for paper products.
Provided by theEnvironmental News Service.