Greenpeace challenges Costco, protects endangered seafood, 2011

On 20 June 2010 Greenpeace kicked off
their campaign targeting Costco wholesale super market’s seafood policies by
floating a blimp with the words “Costco: Wholesale Ocean Destruction” over the company’s
corporate headquarters in Issaquah, Washington. 
According to Greenpeace, Costco was selling 15 out of 22 “red-listed”
seafood species, including critically threatened orange roughy and Chilean sea
bass.  Greenpeace demanded that Costco:
immediately stop selling these two fish; implement a policy refusing to sell
any red list seafood; offer transparency with its seafood labeling; and
implement a sustainable seafood policy.

With the launching of the balloon Greenpeace also
launched their online campaign presence via website oh-no-costco.com.  This website provided opportunity to sign a
pledge or download an “activist toolkit.” 
The toolkit was intended to provide concerned consumers with messaging
and educational literature to distribute at their local Costco stores during
peak hours.

Documentation of these local flyering and education
actions is hard to come by, but Greenpeace records claim that local actions
proliferated from July 2010 to December 2010. 

Then, in January 2011, a directed phone and letter
writing campaign targeted Costco CEO Jim Sinegal and called for a change in
Costco seafood policy.  According to
Greenpeace records, on one day 12,000 people sent emails asking the company to “protect
the oceans.”  This surge added to the
total online presence of the campaign, and final tallies indicated that almost
100,000 emails were sent to Costco during the course of the campaign.

This added pressure, combined with continued local
flyering actions, seemed to reach Costco’s leadership.  On 24 February 2011 the company announced that
they would:

“Eliminate 12 red list species, which will not
return unless the company can find an MSC-certified option. The species are: Atlantic cod, Atlantic halibut, Chilean sea bass, Greenland halibut, Grouper, Monkfish, Orange roughy, Redfish, Shark, Skates and rays, Swordfish, Bluefin tuna.

-- Pledge to play more of a leadership role within
aquaculture;

-- Partner with World Wildlife Fund to examine their
remaining wild-caught species and determine how to best transition to the most
sustainable alternative; and

-- Acknowledge the role that the canned tuna industry plays
within the global sustainable seafood movement and is in the process of
shifting to more sustainable tuna sources in all sectors (fresh, frozen, and
canned).”

Greenpeace claimed
victory, and called on the activists mobilized against Costco to watch out for
their “Supermarket Scorecard” in order to begin the next targeted campaign.