According to the Sundance Catalog, when you shop with Sundance,

You are also supporting American craftspeople, the Sundance Institute for development of new artists in film, music, dance and theater, and efforts to enhance and preserve the environment. 

Preserve the environment, I would hope so- I mean, the founder, Robert Redford, is on the board of directors of the National Resources Defense Council, for crying out loud!  But wait a minute- a few pages of browsing later, I read, in the Sundance catalog's privacy statement,

If you supply us with your postal address on-line you may receive periodic mailings from us with information on new products and services or upcoming events. We sometimes make your name and postal address available to other select direct marketing companies who may have offers of interest to you. 
 
Indeed.  So I wonder.  I have been getting about 40 catalogs a month, thanks to Sundance's intervention on my behalf.  (I wonder how much money they made by selling my personal information...)
 
Think about that- one customer, at least 40 catalogs a month.  How many customers does Sundance have?  How many names do they sell?  If they have 20,000 customers (which is probably a small percentage of their actual numbers)- that would be 800,000 catalogs a year.  Most of which, according to The Chicago Tribune, end up in landfills.  The Tribune  has some interesting numbers to think about: 
 
Every year, American households receive 19 billion catalogs of all shapes and sizes. The environmental groups estimate that it takes 53 million trees to produce the 3.6 million tons of paper in those catalogs. Add in the energy required to make the paper and ship the catalogs, and the environmental groups say that the whole process adds 5.2million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere yearly, equal to the emissions of 2 million cars.
 

Now, I am not suggesting the Robert Redford is responsible for killing all of those trees.  But he certainly is responsible for a goodly sum of those poor, innocent, dead trees.  

Shouldn't we hold a board member of the NRDC to higher standards?

Please click here to find out what you can do if you are Robert Redford.

Please click here to find out what you can do if you are anybody else.