When news broke that a group of environmentalists from California was protesting the use of virgin paper for Victoria's Secret catalogs, most people probably thought it would be another case of an extremist group being ignored by corporate America.

Company executives didn't view the two-year campaign by ForestEthics as an annoyance, however. They listened to the complaints and in December Limited Brands--the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, among others--announced it would stop buying paper produced from trees in vulnerable forests. Now a significant portion of the 350 million catalogs Victoria's Secret prints each year--mostly the clearance catalogs--will be produced with recycled paper. (Its glossy high-end ones can't be run on recycled paper without causing high costs or printing problems.)

Victoria's Secret was targeted because of its potential to set an example for other catalog makers, says ForestEthics spokesman Tom O'Leary. "There are a lot of companies that mail a lot of catalogs," he says,"but with Victoria's Secret their catalog is iconic to their brand."

"I respect the way they conducted their campaign, which led to our partnership with them," says Tom Katzenmeyer, senior vice president at Limited Brands. He says ForestEthics educated executives sbout the damage being caused to certain forests.