John,

One flush at a time, we're losing the North American boreal forest.

We shouldn't chop down intact forests to make slightly softer toilet paper.

Costco can help protect the boreal forest by committing to not sell toilet paper from critical habitat in the boreal.

The boreal forest is more important than bulk toilet paper. Add your name today.

Thank you,

Ellen Montgomery

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Environment Colorado <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, April 12, 2025
Subject: Tell Costco: Don't flush the boreal forest
To: John xxxxxx <[email protected]>

John,

Towering trees that have been on this planet for hundreds of years...

...flushed down the toilet in a single moment.

In the time it takes you to brush your teeth tonight, three football fields worth of the boreal forest will disappear.1 And a huge part of the problem is companies buying the pulp to produce extra fluffy toilet paper.2

Tell Costco: Don't sacrifice critical habitat in our planet's largest remaining intact forest to make softer toilet paper.

If you were dropped into the middle of the boreal forest right now, you'd find a vast, piney woodland, lush with dew-speckled ferns, towering white spruce trees, and roaming wildlife like caribou, lynx and grizzly bears.3

The benefits of this ecologically dense woodland are difficult to overstate. Not only does the boreal provide essential habitat for wild creatures -- including more than 3 billion migrating birds -- but it also works as our planet's lungs, cleaning our air and storing massive amounts of carbon.4,5

And all of that is what we're sacrificing just to make toilet paper out of virgin wood pulp.

That's why we're asking all of our supporters to take action to protect our planet's lungs: Urge Costco not to sell paper products from critical habitat in the boreal forest.

Some of our planet's biggest environmental issues may require complex solutions. But this one is about as simple as it gets.

We have to stop chopping down intact forests and using the pulp for toilet paper that's just a little bit softer than the more sustainable alternative.

Costco has the chance to set a new standard in the industry by making a public commitment to never sourcing its paper products from critical habitat in the boreal forest -- habitat where caribou calves play, snowshoe hares snuffle in the undergrowth, and old, towering trees keep up their quiet work to protect our planet.

Tell Costco to protect the boreal forest and all the creatures that call it home.

Thank you for taking action,

Ellen Montgomery

1. Ellen Montgomery, "We can't keep chopping down the boreal forest for Costco toilet paper," Environment America, October 28, 2022.
2. Mike Moffitt, "The fluffy toilet paper you are buying is helping kill Canada's ancient forest, study says," SF Gate, July 18, 2019.
3. Ellen Montgomery, "Threatened by logging, the boreal forest needs our help," Environment America, September 27, 2022.
4. Ellen Montgomery, "Threatened by logging, the boreal forest needs our help," Environment America, September 27, 2022.
5. Corey J. Bradshaw, "Earth's Second Lung Has Emphysema," Our World, March 27, 2015.