Stand: A New Name for ForestEthics Reflects Action on Forests, Community, Climate and Solutions

On March 22 ForestEthics is taking a new name that demonstrates our commitment to stand for communities and the climate, just as we fight for forests and wild places. [Drum roll please] Beginning today ForestEthics will now be:

Stand

You can find us online at Stand.earth.

ForestEthics was born in the 1990s in Clayoquot Sound off Canada’s West Coast when tens of thousands of people stood together in what was then the largest environmental action in Canadian history. The protests on Vancouver Island, where the logging industry was chopping down thousand-year-old trees to make phone books and 2x4s, made front page news around the world. But the logging did not stop. So our founders created a new strategy: they connected the dots from destroyed forests to the major US corporations buying and selling the products made from those trees. This strategy, called markets campaigning, proved incredibly successful. Those last ancient Clayoquot trees still stand.

ForestEthics took our cross-border market campaigns to other threatened forests in Canada, the US, and around the world. We disrupt bad corporate behavior and engage with companies and government to create solutions. And it works. We’ve shifted over a billion dollars in corporate spending to responsible purchasing and secured the protection of 65 million acres of wilderness in the Canadian boreal forest, Great Bear Rainforest, and other forests around the world.

In the early-2000s, through our campaigns to protect the great northern forests, we identified another severe threat to forests and the climate: extreme tar sands oil. The extraction of this extreme oil devastates the boreal forest and First Nation communities of Alberta, Canada. And every community along transportation routes and by refineries are threatened with increased risk of spills and fires, poisoned air and water.

ForestEthics takes a leadership role in campaigns to stop dangerous pipelines and oil trains that the oil industry uses to transport toxic, explosive crude across North America. As we engaged with communities on the front lines of these fights, we found that our name was confusing for many of our partners, especially those who are responding to immediate threats to the health and safety of their families and their communities. Working with frontline communities has become increasingly important, as has diversity and equity both internally and externally, and our old name was more and more out of step with our future.

A stand of trees grows together, sustaining the health and safety of the entire community. Diversity, connection, and cooperation make that stand, and the individuals in it, stronger and more resilient. These are strong parallels to our work. Stand reaches millions of people working towards a shared vision. We’re excited to have a new name that conveys our core values, our deep partnerships, and our relentless approach to creating solutions that advance human and environmental safety, health, justice and equity.

We are strongest when we stand together.

You can find us at our new website, Stand.Earth

By Todd Paglia, Executive Director

Find Todd on Twitter at @ToddPaglia