Gulf Restoration Network

United for a Healthy Gulf

SUCCESSFUL CYPRESS ACTION AT THE LOWE'S CORPORATE HEAQDQUARTERS

Thursday, 10 April 2008 12:20

A quick update from Charlotte, NC for everyone. Yesterday, about 20 activists and I demonstrated outside the Lowe's Corporate Headquarters with banners and fliers calling on Lowe's to live up to their corporate environmental policies by no longer selling unsustainable cypress mulch. We wanted to make sure Lowe's employees knew about the destruction their company is causing and feel the pressure to stop! And we decided to have a little fun with it too by bringing along all the fixins for a crawfish boil (crawfish and crawfishermen love the cypress swamps). It was a great success. Check out m ore photos on flickr.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Save Our Cypress!

There were newspaper folks, cops, Lowe's security, and lots of Lowe's employees (unfortunately no one took us up on our offer for free crawfish). The HQ is a giant compound complete with guard booth and all, so we were situated at the end of the driveway (on public property) so that everyone leaving work from Lowe's could see us. We handed out hundreds of fliers and you couldn't miss our banners. The message was clear- Lowe's is violating its own corporate rulebook by continuing to sell unsustainable cypress mulch.

All those buildings on the horizon are the compound! Look at the cars who can't ignore us.

A small group of us attempted to peacefully enter the compound in order to deliver thousands of petition postcards to Lowe's. Despite representing thousands of people, from radical students to suburban gardeners, we were turned away at the gate. I'm determined to deliver them before I go home though! You can help get the message directly to Lowe's by picking up your phone and making a call right now. The phone number and talking points are available at http://action.healthygulf.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=490.

Many thanks to Josh and his huge crew from Guilford University for making the drive. Thanks to John and the UNC-Charlotte Earth Club for everything (including housing me for the last couple days).And much appreciation to Shannon for all the great photos!