author: Jeff Lockwood, Rainforest Relief
e-mail:
rainforestrelief@yahoo.com
Last Wednesday, (several years after we first called them) Williams Sonoma (which owns Pottery Barn) agreed to meet with Rainforest Relief's executive director, Tim Keating, to discuss our demand that the company stop selling outdoor furniture made with nyatoh wood from Indonesia's highly endangered rainforests. The company also said they are looking for alternatives to this furniture, so we decided to postpone our protests planned for Saturday and Sunday in our National Days of Action on Outdoor Furniture. We're going to give them a chance to get serious about ending the use of woods from all endangered forests, and can always go back to the streets if necessary.
We decided to switch to our backup target, Restoration Hardware, which sells similar items through its catalog, although not currently through its mortar and brick stores. To our suprise, the company's senior vice president and chief marketing officer called us late this afternoon (we're not sure how they found out about the planned actions!). According to Tim, the company offered to work directly with us and really sounded like they wanted to act responsibly on this important issue, so we are also calling off our protests against Restoration (interestingly, the company seemed particularly concerned about the potential Portland protests - we've no idea why, but way to go, Portland!).
Without having to hand out a single flyer, we made real progress this week on this issue. Thanks for your interest, and please watch our website for further developments!
Jeff Lockwood
Director, Portland Chapter
|
homepage: 
phone: 503-236-3031