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Mattel Bows to Eco Group Pressure, Announces New Sustainability Initiative
Mattel is the world's biggest toy-making company, and their Barbie doll one of the world's most iconic. In June, Greenpeace climbed up the side of Mattel's El Segundo headquarters, and unfurled a banner declaring that Barbie's longtime love Ken was dumping his main squeeze because of Mattel's eco-unfriendly packaging practices. It turns out, Mattel listened.
Today Mattel announced "an ecological sustainability initiative under which it it is adopting new principles governing its procurement of the paper and wood fibers that it uses in its products and packaging," explains the Daily Breeze.
Mattel "said it will tell suppliers to avoid wood fiber from companies 'that are known to be involved in deforestation,'" reports the L.A. Times. That list includes the Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) group, the controversial supplier to which Greenpeace has long raised objection.
Mattel Vice President of Corporate Affairs Lisa Marie Bongiovanni supervises the company's sustainability practices said: "We are committed to advancing the use of sustainably sourced paper and wood fiber across our business, beginning with packaging." The toymaker says their goal is to have 70 percent of their paper packaging to come from recycled material or sustainable fiber by the end of 2011, and that they intend to up that to 85 percent by 2015.
So does this mean Ken and Barbie can get back together, with Greenpeace's approval?
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