EcoFriendlyNYC

Barbie used to be one of my favorite toys of all time. I begged my mom to buy me a new doll every time we went to Toys R Us. I remember having a rather large collection of dolls, and I’d play dress up with Barbie and Ken, I’d brush her hair with her mini-comb, and I’d even don Barbie jean jackets. Yes, I was THAT cool. So it definitely caught my eye when I read that Barbie has recently been entangled in some environmental issues.

Last week, the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace launched an attack on Mattel, the creator of Barbie dolls. Greenpeace accused the toy maker of using packaging produced by clear-cutting Indonesian rainforests. Greenpeace researchers traced company certificates to show that Mattel, along with other toy companies including Hasbro and Disney, are using packaging produced by Asia Pulp and Paper, a supplier that has actually been exposed many times in the past for destroying Indonesia’s rainforests to make products such as packaging.

I generally am not a huge fan of Greenpeace actions because I think they are pretty extreme. But I can appreciate that the reason why they are extreme is so that they can gain media attention. And this attack did not differ from their previous approaches. Activists dressed in tuxedos to mimic Ken scaled Mattel’s headquarters in LA with a giant banner say “Barbie: It’s Over. I Don’t Date Girls That are Into Deforestation.”And there was even an activists dressed as Barbie who drove around in a pink bulldozer. Needless to say, they were all arrested.

First of all, the sign is kind of misleading. Does it mean that only Barbie dolls are packaged with deforestation materials and Ken dolls aren’t? No, Ken doll packaging is made from the same stuff Barbie dolls packing is made of. But that’s just me thinking too much into this. I get it – it does have a catchy storyline.  But seriously, I do applaud these activists for taking some action that really got people talking. And it even got Mattel to take some action. The toymaker issued statements declaring that it does not support deforestation and will investigate the allegations against Asia Pulp and Paper. In the meantime, it will cut ties with the packaging supplier. It also announced that it is developing a “sustainable procurement policy” to avoid using packaging that contributes to deforestation.

Which to me is a huge step in the right direction. It makes me happy to hear that large companies are taking environmental issues seriously. Large companies have images to uphold, and it’s important to take all necessary steps to let consumers and all other stakeholders know that they are doing everything in their power to protect the environment. Even if it because they want to safeguard revenues or to avoid repeat attacks from Greenpeace – any impetus is fine as long as they understand in order to stay competitive in today’s business environment, they need to incorporate sustainability checkpoints into their supply chain and procurement processes. I wonder if they’re going to hire a consulting company to do this for them…