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Limited Brands Inc. Wednesday said it plans to partner with its paper supplier to stop using pulp from the boreal forest in the Rocky Mountain foothills in Alberta, Canada, and the temperate rainforest in British Columbia, Canada. It also promised to use 10 percent recycled or forest-friendly paper in its catalogs next year and spend $1 million on research and forest advocacy.

"The really nice thing about this is there's a lot of language in their policy around continuous improvement", said Todd Paglia, executive director of ForestEthics, the environmental group that launched the "Victoria's Dirty Secret" campaign against what it considered one of the worst offenders in the catalog industry about two years ago.

Limited Brands has agreed to have an accounting firm certify its progress toward its environmental goals, Paglia said.

"That kind of transparency is a rare thing and it's a really important move forward", he said.

In addition to the ads in The New York Times, ForestEthics' campaign included hundreds of demonstrations and protests at Victoria's Secret stores and events. The group said it wanted to make customers aware of the amount of paper the company used and where it came from.

"When you think of Victoria's Secret, you don't think of forests, but they send out a tremendous number of catalogs", Paglia said.

Columbus-based Limited Brands, which mails more than 350 million catalogs a year, already has agreed to make changes in its clearance catalogs, which now use 80 percent recycled content. Its regular catalogs will shift to content that is 10 percent recycled or 10 percent approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies that forest products are harvested in accordance with environmental policies.

Tom Katzenmeyer, Limited Brands' senior vice president for investor, media and community relations, said in a conference call Wednesday that the new paper policy better matches the company's values.

"In terms of us being a leader in the catalog and retail industry, I think will help lead others to the same conclusions", he said.

He said he doesn't expect the change to affect the catalogs' quality or the company's costs.

ForestEthics' campaign didn't hurt business for Limited Brands, which reported a profit of $23.5 million for the quarter ended Oct. 28, powered by big sales increases at Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. But the group points out that it wasn't a boycott campaign.

"They had to do what they had to do to get our attention", said Katzenmeyer, who said the company was quick to partner with the group.

Paglia said his organization plans to turn its attention to other catalog-heavy companies after also seeing recent agreements from Dell Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. to use more recycled content in their catalogs.

ForestEthics' method is to work within the marketplace to influence companies, rather than try a legislative or regulatory approach, Paglia said.

Limited Brands operates 3,545 stores under the names of Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, Express, Limited Stores, White Barn Candle Co., Henri Bendel and Diva London.

Its stock fell 17 cents to $31.22 in trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. It has traded between $21.62 and $32.60 in the past year.

On the Net:

Limited Brands: http://www.limitedbrands.com

Victoria's Secret: http://www.victoriassecret.com

ForestEthics: http://www.forestethics.org