Nicole Rycroft, Executive Director, Markets Initiative marketsinitiative.org
by Jennifer Croll
Nicole Rycroft has a knack for making headlines.
The much-vaunted executive director of
Markets Initiative is not only considered one of the
30 most influential people in Canadian publishing,
she’s also the 2008 winner of the Canadian
Boreal Award for Outstanding Contribution by an
Individual.
Oh, and you may have read about her arrest
in China. “I was hanging from a banner in downtown
Beijing and taking media calls from the back
of the police van,” she recalls. Nicole was there
advocating for Tibetan freedom, one of her many
causes. But she’s best known for saving trees.
Markets Initiative, the influential forest conservation
organization, began in Nicole’s Tofino
kitchen in 1999 with a monthly budget of $600.
From the start, Nicole had big ideas. “We wanted
to help safeguard ancient and endangered forests
around the world. We also wanted to contribute
to a paradigm shift in how we as a society value
our forest ecosystems.” Nicole chose to do that by
changing consumption patterns of one of the biggest
draws on old-growth forests: paper.
Markets Initiative has since changed the face
of Canadian publishing. It was behind Raincoast
Books’ decision to print the Harry Potter series
on ancient forest-friendly paper, as well as the
adoption of environmental paper policies by most
major Canadian magazine conglomerates. Nicole’s
freshest triumph has been with the newspaper
industry, which recently began printing on recycled
paper.
In the end, Nicole’s news-making moves are
all about practicality. “I think a very important
part of our work is putting tangible environmental
solutions into the hands of people,” she says.
Fitting, since you’re holding one of her legacies
in your hands this very minute.
