December 16, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
The board of Greenpeace USA resigned this month after failing to reach agreement on the best way to manage the environmental advocacy group, which has been trying to stabilize itself after a tumultuous shakeup in 1997.
The action followed a year of gridlock during which the nine board members often found themselves at loggerheads over which policies to pursue. A new board will be elected next year by the voting members of Greenpeace: a group of 188 current and former staff members who have worked for the organization for at least six years.
The mass resignation “is not a sign of drift in Greenpeace’s mission,” said Kristen Engberg, the executive director. The organization has balanced its budget — now around $20-million — for the first time in five years, she noted, and has hired more than 30 new staff members. It now has about 300,000 members and is actively working in the areas of climate change, forest preservation, toxic emissions, ocean pollution and fisheries, and genetic engineering.
Among the recent successes she cited are agreements by Mattel to replace vinyl with plant-based plastics in making its toys, by IKEA and Home Depot to stop buying wood from old-growth forests for its product lines, and by Heinz and Gerber to eliminate genetically altered ingredients from their baby foods.
The board turnover comes two years after Greenpeace USA ended its grassroots door-to-door canvassing for members and contributions and closed its 11 regional offices. That decision, which followed years of declining donations, resulted in the layoff of more than 300 of its 400 staff members.
Shortly thereafter, Ms. Engberg was hired from Greenpeace International, the U.S. group’s parent organization. Worldwide, Greenpeace has offices in about 40 countries, 2.4 million supporters, and an annual budget of about $100-million.
