At a joint news conference in Washington DC, Greenpeace and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB), the world’s largest tissue-product manufacturer, announced an agreement that will ensure greater protection and sustainable management of Canada’s Boreal Forest.
By 2012, Kimberly-Clark, which makes Kleenex-brand products, will no longer use pulp from the Boreal Forest unless is it certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council.
Kimberly-Clark also set a goal of ensuring that 100% of the fiber used in its products will be from environmentally responsible sources. It will greatly increase its use of recycled fiber and fiber from forest certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards. By 2011, it will also increase the use of recycled and FSC fiber from North America sources to 40% from 29.7% in 2007.
As part of the agreement, Greenpeace announced that it will end its nearly five-year-long Kleercut campaign against Kimberly-Clark. Greenpeace said Kimberly-Clark’s new policy will stand out as a model for forest-products companies worldwide.
Canada’s Boreal Forest is North America’s largest ancient forest and provides habitat for threatened wildlife such as woodland caribou, wolverine and over one billion migratory birds. The new agreement ensures that Kimberly-Clark will no longer purchase pulp from the three million hectare Kenogami and Ogoki Forests in northern Ontario unless strict ecological criteria are met. These two areas within key zones of intact forest have been at the center of Greenpeace’s Kleercut campaign.
In April, Kimberly-Clark announced the nationwide launch of a line of toilet paper, napkins and paper towels containing a blend of recycled material and virgin fiber.
In July, the EPA said Kimberly-Clark generates more on-site green power than any other members of the Green Power Partnership.
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