Victoria Secret Goes Green

Posted by Kimberly Field Dec 11, 2006

Victoria Secret has gone green after thousands protest their non-recycled catalog. Gone are the days of Victoria’s nasty little secret of using virgin forest to make their highly demanded lingerie catalogs. Victoria Secret (and parent company of Limited Brands) reached an agreement to shift 10% post consumer waste and 80% post consumer waste in clearance catalogs. That’s a lot of catalogs that won’t be filling up the landfills!

In addition, Victoria Secret is forcing FSC certification and FSC throughput in 4 mills, all owned by their supplier, and shall monitor this annually. They’re investing $1 million into mapping old growth areas in the Boreal Forest and will be co-creating a Green Catalog Council to advance best practices. They are committed to shifting consumption from old growth to recycled paper.

In a final measure to clean their closet and please the outcry of protest, Victoria Secret is committing $20-40 million per year for a secondary paper supplier with high environmental standards. Forest Ethics will help in the selection process. Forest Ethics will offer jointly developed environmental criteria that will help the company’s progress. Annual assessments in measuring their environmental progress will be made public on their web site.