Friend,

We only have until midnight to hit our goal of raising $40,000 to help protect our forests.

Logging companies are cutting down the boreal forest for toilet paper. The boreal is the world's largest intact forest and it's shrinking quickly.

Costco is flushing the boreal down the toilet -- over 1 billion rolls of toilet paper fly off Costco shelves every single year.

We're calling on Costco to stop selling toilet paper made from precious boreal trees and switch to recycled and sustainable alternatives.

We need you to stand up for the boreal, Friend. Donate to our Giving Tuesday Drive before midnight to help protect our forests.

Thank you,

Ellen Montgomery
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Environment Colorado <[email protected]>
Date: Tues, Nov 29, 2022
Subject: Costco is flushing this forest down the toilet
To: Friend <[email protected]>

Friend,

Costco is known for its bulk-savings that enable us to stock up on essentials that will last a long while. One of its best-selling items is hay-bale sized packages of toilet paper. But those packs of toilet paper are coming at a terrible cost to the environment.

Costco makes its toilet paper out of virgin wood fiber from the boreal forest, and the corporation is contributing to the boreal's disappearance -- threatening one of our greatest tools against climate change and the home of endangered species.1

This Giving Tuesday, we've set a goal of $40,000 to help protect the boreal forest and convince Costco to stop using virgin wood for toilet paper. Will you donate today?

Yes, I'll donate to help save the boreal forest.

In the time it takes you to read this email, logging companies will cut down three football fields' worth of trees from the boreal.2

And turning the boreal into toilet paper is flushing the future of our climate down the toilet.

Boreal forests store roughly 30 to 40% of all land-based carbon in the world, but scientists are warning that deforestation is causing the carbon sinks to reverse, returning 26 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.3,4

Meanwhile, the caribou in the boreal are declining due to habitat loss, and lynx, bison and hundreds of other species are losing their homes.5

This Giving Tuesday, help stop the destruction of the boreal forest.

All told, toilet paper made from virgin fiber has three times the impact on the climate than that made of recycled material.6

The responsible thing for Costco to do would be to switch to recycled fibers. The company sells more than a billion rolls of toilet paper a year, and the boreal cannot continue to support that production. It's why Costco received an "F" score for its sustainability.7

Environment Colorado is calling on Costco to make its toilet paper from at least 50% recycled or forest-free materials, and this Giving Tuesday, you can help us encourage the corporation to protect the boreal.

Will you donate to help us meet our $40,000 goal?

Thank you,

Ellen Montgomery

1. Mike Moffitt, "The fluffy toilet paper you are buying is helping kill Canada's ancient forest, study says," San Francisco Gate, July 18, 2019.
2. Mary Katherine Moore, "Costco is trading the boreal forest for toilet paper," Environment America, December 15, 2021.
3. Rachel Ramirez, "Some experts fear these forests could shift from absorbing carbon dioxide to emitting it," CNN, April 27, 2022.
4. Ryan Flanagan, "How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada's boreal forest," CTV News, February 26, 2019.
5. Ryan Flanagan, "How a toilet paper boom is harming Canada's boreal forest," CTV News, February 26, 2019.
6. Karin Larsen, "U.S. toilet paper production is wiping out Canada's boreal forest, report claims," CBC, June 24, 2020.
7. Mike Moffitt, "The fluffy toilet paper you are buying is helping kill Canada's ancient forest, study says," San Francisco Gate, July 18, 2019.

Your donation will be used to support all of our campaigns to protect the environment, from saving the bees and protecting public lands, to standing up for clean water and fighting climate change. None of our work would be possible without supporters like you. Environment Colorado may transfer up to $50 per dues-paying member per year into the Environment Colorado Small Donor Committee.