Greenpeace Putting up to 130 Kiwi Jobs at Risk

Greenpeace Putting up to 130 Kiwi Jobs at Risk

In persisting with an unwarranted campaign to dissuade consumers from purchasing Cottonsoft’s retail brands, Greenpeace, the New Zealand Green Party and WWF are putting at risk up to 130 jobs in Auckland and Dunedin, the company says.

“There is no credible evidence for the allegation Greenpeace is making against Cottonsoft products,” says Steve Nicholson, Cottonsoft’s director of corporate affairs. “Cottonsoft products are approved by one of the world’s leading authorities on forest certification. That means that Cottonsoft products do not contain any high conservation value wood, which is fully protected under Indonesian law.

“The test that Greenpeace commissioned; published and is now citing in the media lacks scientific credibility. The US-based testing body that conducted the Greenpeace research has limited knowledge of tropical hardwood. The terms it used in the test are extremely vague and open to interpretation. Based on our reading of this material, which refers to “suspected tropical hardwoods”, the testing appears to be guesswork.

“Cottonsoft is open to any further tests by independent, credible scientific authorities.”
Mr Nicholson says that in persisting in putting unfair and undue pressure on retailers to cease stocking Cottonsoft retail brands, Greenpeace is endangering the job security of Cottonsoft’s 130 New Zealand employees in its Auckland and Dunedin plants. “We have been operating in New Zealand for 25 years, and consider this unwarranted attack on our reputation and staff to be unacceptable.”

Fibre for the retail brands referred to by Greenpeace in its media release is either PEFC-certified or certified as non-controversial by PEFC, and backed up by verification from international audit organisation SGS.

ENDS

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