In the past, Free The Planet! OSU has focused its efforts on influencing corporations to adhere to environmentally responsible practices. The OSU chapter has worked with Ford to elevate their fuel standards and Victoria’s Secret to eliminate sourcing products from endangered forests and indigenous lands for their catalogs.

This year, after completing a successful campaign in which Victoria’s Secret adopted a similar forest resources policy to that which we are proposing for OSU, Free The Planet decided to focus its energies on making tangible social and environmental progress on the University campus. With the knowledge gained through the Victoria’s Secret campaign, members decided to begin a similar campaign at OSU, to ensure that the University’s business leadership carries a responsibility to the environment, including a responsibility to the world’s forests.

Five members of the organization produced a report, which details the reasons why OSU should contribute to the development of environmental solutions that conserve, protect and restore forests and the current status of forest resources procurement at OSU. Indigenous livelihoods are also at stake as many logging sites are located in native lands, such as the Canadian Boreal forest, home to the Grassy Narrows community, a people that are rapidly losing the resources they need to survive due to logging. This report highlights the lack of records on forest product consumption and the inability to truly assess OSUs impact without a comprehensive audit of the University’s purchase and usage of wood and paper products.

The report urges the adoption of the Forest Resources Policy, which was originally crafted by the Wye River Coalition, a consortium of international environmental NGOs including ForestEthics, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, World Resources Institute, and World Wildlife Fund – US. The policy aims to eliminate the purchase of lumber, paper and other forest products that originate in endangered forest regions around the world. We want to expedite the transition away from forest practices that lead to the degradation of endangered forests, which include but are not limited to the logging of remaining old growth forests and the conversion of native forests to non-native tree farms. The World Resources Institute's Global Forest Watch program may be used for assistance in identifying endangered forests and wood and paper based products from these forests.

While this may seem like a complicated policy to adopt, the purchases of Forest Stewardship Council products and recycled products will always guarantee the protection of Endangered Forests. The Forest Stewardship Council is an international coalition of business, environmental, and other groups with a system of Forest Certification that verifies that wood is coming from forestry operations that meet a credible standard of ecological, social and environmental sustainability criteria. Already, OSU Stores offers an array of FSC and recycled products. Now is the opportunity for The Ohio State University to become an environmental leader and stop running far behind the likes of Rutgers, Princeton, and Indiana University, universities who all have comprehensive environmentally responsible purchasing policies.

Furthermore, this is the opportunity for OSU to acknowledge and adhere to students’ vision of their University. Hundreds of students have signed a petition promoting policy adoption and Undergraduate Student Government has also signed a resolution supporting the adoption of the Forest Resources Policy. Moreover, the Committee on Physical Environments of the University Senate has promised to submit a resolution of support. Supported by students and faculty, adoption of the Policy will bring OSU closer to being more than just a leader in academics and athletics, but a leader in socially and environmentally-just causes as well.

Documents to check out:
Proposed Forest Resources Policy (labeled FRP)
Flier describing OSUs connection to logging in indigenous lands