Safeway, a recognized leader in embracing sustainable seafood practices, builds on its leadership by announcing that its Safeway brand skipjack (chunk-light) canned tuna will be responsibly caught using free-school purse-seine methods. The company will transition to the purse-seine method by the end of the year.

Free-school tuna is caught by purse-seiners using traditional methods of spotting schools of fish using radar and sonar, while captains employ powerful binoculars to spot birds attracted by schools of tuna. Joe Ennen, Senior Vice President of Consumer Brands, said the new sourcing policy is an important step in addressing the consumer demand for a more sustainably sourced product without compromising quality.

“We are committed to building a brand portfolio that is innovative and gives consumers what they want. We have always felt that the Safeway brand is the best tasting canned tuna product. Now we’re excited to offer that same superior quality from a source that is more sustainable and eco-friendly,” Ennen said.

Safeway is implementing these new specifications at a time when the tuna fishing industry is finding better ways to address the significant negative ecosystem impacts associated with purse-seine netted tuna fishing, a method that employs fish aggregating devices (FADs).

Safeway’s move to eliminate FAD-caught tuna is part of the effort to make its branded tuna across the shelf stable category more responsibly sourced and to also enhance the company’s “Dolphin Safe” tuna commitments made years ago to Earth Island Institute. Safeway is in the process of instituting additional specifications for responsibly sourced albacore tuna caught on longline vessels with improved fishing techniques.  Safeway brand “responsibly caught” tuna is the first brand in North America to make this important move.

Greenpeace has greeted Safeway’s announcement with significant excitement. According to Casson Trenor, Senior Markets Campaigner, “Safeway has just galvanized its hold on pole position within the U.S. retail industry in regard to sustainable seafood. Safeway’s canned skipjack tuna specifications are progressive, comprehensive, and visionary.

They address the dangers of fish-aggregating devices. Greenpeace applauds Safeway for stepping up to the plate and making this powerful and public commitment and looks forward to the company’s forthcoming albacore tuna policy.”

“Sourcing responsibly fished tuna is vital to marine ecosystem health. said Phil Gibson, Safeway’s Group Director of Seafood. “We are pleased to include the canned tuna category in our company’s Comprehensive Sustainable Seafood Policy.”

The specifications will be implemented over the coming year. By establishing this detailed sourcing plan, Safeway will be working with capable suppliers and verification partners who can provide responsibly caught tuna with full supply chain transparency.

“Safeway’s new specifications for canned tuna perfectly complement the work we are already doing together on fresh and frozen seafood. Engaging with existing suppliers to drive improvements over time is emphasized,” noted Matt Owens, Operations Director at FishWise, a California-based NGO specializing in seafood sustainability.

Safeway’s sourcing decision is driven by concerns about over-harvesting of fish and the significant mortality rate of non-target (bycatch) species – such as sea turtles, sharks, and pelagic fish – associated with skipjack fishing using FADs. Fishing tuna without FADs can significantly reduce bycatch levels.

However, verifying that a tuna source is not using FADs requires new protocols and building partnerships with stakeholders in ocean ecology.  In the future, Safeway will conduct in-depth research towards bringing to market economically viable, bio-regionally supported pole & line sourced tuna fish.

Safeway has now made clear its intention to work with the fishing industry, governments, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, NGOs, and scientists to improve the management, sustainability and fairness of the fisheries that Safeway continues to source from.

Safeway is an industry leader in environmental sustainability, ethical business practices and effective community outreach.  Safeway upholds an operating philosophy that is rooted in corporate social responsibility focused on four key fundamentals: People, Products, Community, and the Planet.

These fundamentals are “The Heart of Safeway,” bringing together our passion for food and serving our customers with the rapidly developing needs of our communities and our planet.

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National environmental organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen, Clean Water Action, and Greenpeace, along with regional energy advocacy organization Citizen Power, are sending a letter to teacher organizations throughout the United States to alert teachers to be careful when considering using the resources of the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED).

NEED conducts teacher training workshops around the US and gives participants teaching resources, including “Infobooks” that contain information about various energy sources. A review of the NEED Secondary Infobook * reveals that some of the information it contains is incomplete, unbalanced, or simply not accurate.

Despite repeatedly being asked to correct the Infobooks, NEED continues to disseminate this misinformation. Some of the more egregious omissions or errors are listed in the letter to teacher organizations. To see the letter and citations, click here:http://www.citizenpower.com/NEED/NEED_Teacher_Orgs_letter.pdf.

“It is unacceptable that teachers of future decision makers are getting information about energy sources that is misleading at best and, at worst, simply wrong,” said Christopher Paine, Nuclear Program Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“The information being presented to students misleads them on very basic questions of health and safety.  Fossil fuels like coal have very damaging effects on health, and schools should warn students about them, not ignore them,” noted Barbara Gottlieb, Director of Environment and Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility.

In April 2009, NEED asked for and was given more than 100 citations to support the contention that the Infobooks contain misleading or inaccurate information. It was hoped that the 2010 edition of the Infobooks would be revised per this supporting documentation. Regrettably, that was not to be the case. In January 2011 a letter was sent to the 30 member NEED Teacher Advisory Board, along with the supporting citations, requesting that the TAB work to revise the 2011 Infobooks.

Unfortunately, the 2011 Infobooks still contain very misleading or inaccurate information about coal and nuclear energy. In addition, ongoing reviews reveal an additional need for revisions, including in the Petroleum and Biomass sections. Citations for these suggested revisions were also sent to NEED in January 2011.

“It is bad enough that our democracy is under assault by unregulated corporate lobbying – but now energy companies are influencing educational curriculums. Our children deserve fact-based education – not lesson plans approved by energy corporations,” said Tyson Slocum, Director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program.

“Now, more than ever, we need sound science and fact-based analysis to shape the energy education of young Americans.  If the NEED program is determined to dispense coal and oil industry spin in their place, parents, teachers, and administrators must start taking a harder look at whether they want NEED materials in their local schools,” said Dave Hamilton, Director of Global Warming and Energy Programs for the Sierra Club.

“It is obvious that NEED has made a conscious decision to continue disseminating this information despite having evidence that it is inaccurate,” said David Hughes, President of Citizen Power. “We intend to continue to pressure NEED to make its Infobooks accurate and to alert teachers about NEED’s misleading teaching resources.”

*http://www.need.org/needpdf/Secondary%20Energy%20Infobook.pdf

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Last Tuesday, Greenpeace activists made a bold announcement outside of Mattel headquarters in Los Angeles by hanging a massive sign announcing to the world that Ken was breaking up with Barbie. The sign read “Barbie, it’s over. I don’t date girls that are into deforestation.” Developed as an economic tool by Mattel, the celebrity-like relationship of the two product figureheads was used to bring attention to the presence of timber fibers found in the packaging used to distribute Barbie that can be traced to Indonesian rainforests.

Despite occupying over 1% of the Earth’s surface, Indonesia provides habitat for 12% of all mammal species, such as the Sumatran tiger, and 17% of all reptile, bird and amphibian species.

Toy companies such as Mattel, Disney, Hasbro and Lego are being implicated by Greenpeace’s investigation into Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), the packaging supplier for the companies. Mattel is the largest designer, manufacturer and marketer of toy products worldwide and Disney is the world’s largest merchandise licensor. Last Tuesday’s campaign demanded that toy companies stop doing business with Asia Pulp & Paper, which Greenpeace has previously accused on numerous occasions of destruction of the rainforest and it’s endangered species.

In their major findings, Greenpeace cited that their forensic testing showed “regular use” of mixed tropical hardwood (MTH), or rainforest fibers in major toy brand packaging, such as Mattel and Disney. Greenpeace also included in their report that MTH clearance from Indonesia’s rainforests and peat swamp forests makes up one fifth of the fiber pulped in Asia Pulp & Paper’s mills, indicating deforestation of critical land. While Greenpeace did not cite the percentage of fibers from Indonesia’s forests found in the packaging, Asia Pulp & Paper industry stated in a June 8th post on the company’s Rainforest Realities blog that they are “Happy to share the scientific analysis of our packaging materials with anyone who wants to review it.”

Asia Pulp & Paper verifies that their packaging materials contains more than 95% of recycled paper sourced from around the world, and less than two percent of the pulp in carton boxes comes from legal and sustainable Indonesia pulpwood plantations. The remainder is from Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certified forests.

The Greenpeace statistic that one fifth of the fiber pulped in Asia Pulp & Paper’s mills is rainforest and peat comes from a 2007 report, which does not accurately reflect the current goals and production of Asia Paper & Pulp. The chain of custody which was used to trace the packaging back to China and Indonesia was possible due to the objective of certified forest management, such as the PEFC certification which Asia Pulp & Paper uses. Certification makes it possible to track any certified product back to its original source, which guarantees that wherever it came from was using a long-term sustainable forest management plan. It also guarantees the the pulp produced was done so legally, complying with the country of origin laws as well as the laws in the country where the pulp product would be imported.

Since 2007, Asia Pulp & Paper has implemented a number of changes. The last few months alone have marked what Asia P&P referred to as “the beginning of a new era of international cooperation with Indonesia”. The Indonesian President signed the official enactment of the forest moratorium earlier this year, which will put a two year hold on the issuance of new concessions on peat lands and in forests. Asia Pulp & Paper has made many demonstrations of their commitment to this moratorium and intentions to support Indonesia as it works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preserve natural forests and wildlife while investing in economic and social development.

On April 5th Asia Pulp & Paper announced it’s expanding partnership with Carbon Conservation, an environmental and sustainability consulting firm, to help craft Vision 2020, a road map of sustainability principles across all aspects of the company’s Indonesian operations from today to the year 2020. Asia Pulp & Paper also recently laid out a series of research and development programs the company will undertake during the current two-year moratorium on the granting of new forest and peat licenses as part of Indonesia’s commitment on Reducing Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

Additional programs planned over the coming two years include an ambitious independent study on the impact of plantation development and greenhouse gas emissions on all soil types and enhancing key conservation areas, including creation of valuable wildlife corridors. In conversation with claims made by Greenpeace, research and pilot programs involving the protection of key Indonesian endangered species, including the Sumatran Tiger, Javan Rhino and Orangutan, will be developed as well.

The attention Greenpeace brought to Indonesia’s rainforest is of high importance due to the changes which not only the pulp and paper industry in the region is undergoing, but what is changing in Indonesia as a country. According to the Indonesian Pulp & Paper Industry, understanding that natural forest cannot sustainably supply the need of the timber and pulp and paper industry, the government has allocated around 5% of Indonesia’s landmass for the forest plantation industry on degraded forest and bare land.

The Industry is “disappointed in Greenpeace’s tactics to exploit the stereotype of backwoods loggers in developing nations who cleared entire forests with no regard for the environmental impact”, and instead say that Indonesian forestry practices are far more sophisticated. Asia Pulp & Paper deemed Greenpeace’s actions urging companies to stop doing business with Indonesia as “simply irresponsible”.

The advocacy of groups such as Greenpeace that bring worldwide attention to vital issues such as deforestation in critical areas around the globe is invaluable. However, there is often misconception associated with the shocking social tactics, such as well-known toys making environmental statements. Fueled by the social and consumer impact of mass distributed toys, such as Barbie, upon the environment, the long standing stigmas surrounding the pulp and paper industries as destroying the environment may be due for an update.

Write to Mattel’s CEO Now:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/asia-pacific/barbie/

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