Seasons Fund for Social Transformation - christopher reardon

“By staying connectedto our purpose,by keeping ourhearts open andminds clear, we arefar more likely toactually play ourpart in creating abetter world.”—Robert Gasssorized their lingerie with chainsaws, and the adjacent text called attentionto where the company got its paper.Behind the scenes, Paglia and his colleagues were busy building relationshipswith people inside the company. “Years ago people told us itwouldn’t work, that you either work with companies or you workagainst them, and I always thought that was a false choice,” he says.“If you do it right they can respect you and have a little bit of fear, andthere’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t need to be buddies, but youdo need to have respect. That’s more important, and that’s the waywe’ve tried to orient our communications with the companies behind thescenes.”ForestEthics reached a deal in December 2006, with Limited Brandsagreeing to dramatically alter its paper sourcing policies. But the companyhas gone even further by seeking advice from ForestEthics, lobbyingthe Canadian government to tighten regulation of the paper industry,and urging other catalog companies to follow its lead. None of thatwould have happened, Paglia says, if he and his colleagues had taken amore hostile approach. “We don’t feel like we’re beating people,” hesays. “We feel like we’re waking them up.”www.forestethics.orgwww.rockwoodfund.orgWayne Sawchuk