Disney adopts new paper policy after protest

Walt Disney Co. is implementing a new policy to use less paper from environmentally threatened areas, a year after it was targeted by environmental protesters.

In May of 2011, activists from the Rainforest Action Network hung a banner outside Disney’s Burbank headquarters charging the entertainment giant with “destroying Indonesia’s rainforests.”

At the time, Disney called the protest a “publicity stunt” and said it had already made a commitment to “sustainable paper” in a 2010 corporate citizenship report.

However, the company started talks with the Rainforest Action Network and, on Thursday, unveiled a new paper policy. The company promised to eliminate the use of paper products from “irresponsibly harvested fiber,” much of which is in Indonesia, as well as to minimize the overall use of paper and to maximize its recycled content and fiber sourced from operations certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Disney plans to implement the policy first for its own operations and then for independent manufacturers that license its brands.

The Rainforest Action Network celebrated Disney’s move.

“Disney is adding its voice to the growing chorus of companies demonstrating that there’s no need to sacrifice endangered forests in Indonesia or elsewhere for the paper we use every day,” the group’s executive director, Rebecca Tarbotton, said in a statement.

Disney is the world’s largest publisher of children’s books and magazines. Products bearing its brands are manufactured at about 25,000 factories in more than 100 countries.

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