Kimberly-Clark often sends out form letter replies with 'green propaganda' to the letter and emails of concern that our supporters send them. To clear the air, we've put together a point by point response to Kimberly-Clark's propaganda below.
Claim 1: Kimberly-Clark claims to have a proud corporate social responsibility and sustainability history.
Claim2: Kimberly-Clark claims to be a leader of sustainability. For two years in a row, K-C has ranked No. 1 among personal care companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes.
Claim 3: Kimberly-Clark claims it is committed to preserving ecologically significant old growth forests.
Claim4: Kimberly-Clark claims fiber from the Boreal and British Columbia Forests represent a small proportion of its total use and are not harvested solely for the production of pulp.
Claim 5: Kimberly-Clark claims its use of virgin and recycled fiber is in line with industry practices.
Claim6: Kimberly-Clark claims that 100 percent virgin fibre for premium products like Kleenex is in line with industry standards and consumerpreference.
Claim 7:Kimberly-Clark claims to support third-party forest certification and holds suppliers to high standards of sustainability.
Claim 1: Kimberly-Clark claims to have: A proud corporate social responsibility and sustainability history.
Our Answer:
It takes more than producing an annual corporate sustainability report tomake a company truly sustainable and socially responsible. Kimberly-Clark is a corporation whose massive profits are based oncreating disposable products from forests including ancient forests like the Boreal forest.
The evidence on websites, reports, in still photos and moving video is clear that Kimberly-Clark is good at "greenwashing" its image but not so good at decreasing its impact on ancient forests.
Top
Claim 2: Kimberly-Clark claims to be a leader of sustainability: For two years in a row, K-Chas ranked number 1 among personal care companies in the Dow JonesSustainability World Indexes.
Our Answer:
The Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) is far from reliable, since companies are assessed only on publicly available information provided by themselves, with no third party verification. In addition, most points are awarded for economic and social/workers issues and the environmental criteria are more geared toward "eco-efficiency" than fibre sourcing.
To put the environmental criteria awarded points into perspective, it's 'Environmental Reporting' scores the lowest of in terms of percentage weighting (only 3 percent) whereas "Talent Attraction & Retention" even gets more (ie 5.5 percent).
Top
Claim 3: Kimberly-Clark claims: is Committed to Preserving Ecologically Significant Old Growth Forests.
Our Answer:
Kimberly-Clark says that it has participated in Ontario Living Legacy Land Use Strategy and that it has worked to create protected areas on its former forest lands in the Kenogami Forest in Northern Ontario, Canada. That may be the case and sound good but when you look at the numbers the picture isn't so pretty.
Less than 2.4 percent of the Kenogami Forest is set aside in areas protected from logging. But the average amount for land set aside as protected in areas licensed to forestry companies is 12 percent. And even 12 percent is much lower than what Greenpeace and most scientists believe is ecologically responsible. Kimberly-Clark simply does not meet the grade.
Kimberly-Clark continues to buy fiber from companies that log in intact and ecologically important boreal forests in Ontario and Alberta, Canada. Kimberly-Clark's own documents show that it is logging in intact forests that contain trees that are upwards of 180 years old. This is the habitat of such species as grizzly and black bears, woodland caribou, wolves, bald eagles, boreal owls, and pine marten.
Some of these boreal forest ecosystems have never been logged before and should not be clearcut to produce disposable tissue products.
Top
Claim 4: Kimberly-Clark claims: Fiber from the Boreal and British Columbia Forests Represent a Small Proportion of K-C's Total Use and are not harvested solely for the production of pulp.
Our answer:
Kimberly-Clark tries to dismiss its links to ancient forest destruction by claiming the the forest pulp they purchase comes from residual waste generated by the lumber production process. However, fibre for pulp and paper production in Canada is a co-product of the lumber industry, not a by-product.
In other words wood chips are not a 'residual waste' product. In fact, it is an accepted fact in Canada that lumbermills are financially dependant on the sale of wood chips to pulp and paper mills. For example, the Forest Industry Advisory Committee of the BC Competition Council writes that in the Boreal, wood chip revenues "are substantial and they hold the key to sawmills' profitability." Source: "Report to the Council", March 31, 2006.
Kimberly-Clark's suppliers also get a substantial portion of their fibre directly from trees, in direct contrast to Kimberly-Clark's claims. In fact, according to the Kenogami Forest Management Plan - the official government-approved plan written by Neenah Paper Inc. that outlines logging operations in Ontario's Kenogami Forest - 48 percent of the wood used in the Neenah Paper's pulp mill comes directly from the Boreal forest.
This wood is not sawed first at a local sawmill nor delivered in the form of sawdust or chips. Neenah Paper is a currently a major supplier of pulp to Kimberly-Clark and was owned by Kimberly-Clark up until November 2004. The Kenogami Forest is a Boreal forest. Kimberly-Clark is sourcing from old-growth areas in the Boreal (see section above) and is sourcing more than 15 percent its total global fibre from the Canadian Boreal.
According to its own 2005 Sustainability Report (p. 29) 22 percent of its global supply ofvirgin pulp was from the ancient Boreal forest in Canada. Despite whether Kimberly-Clark uses a small or large amount of old-growth forest pulp from British Columbia, they are breeching their own policy not use coastal temperate rainforest pulp, putting all of the company's environmental statements into question.
In July 2006, Greenpeace released an investigative report entitled 'Chain of Lies: the Truth about Kimberly-Clark's Use of Ancient Rainforests for TissueProducts' which provided evidence that Kimberly-Clark uses pulp from the coastal temperate rainforests of British Columbia, despite repeated public claims to the contrary which date as far back to 1998.
The claims to not use coastal temperate rainforest pulp form a key tenet of the company's corporate Policy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and are consistently used as a response to criticisms of the company's destruction of other ancient forests, like Canada's Boreal.
Top
Claim 5: Kimberly-Clark claims: K-C's Use of Virgin and Recycled Fiber is in Line With Industry Practices
Our answer:
Most of Kimberly-Clark's well-known tissue paper products that are sold to the public through corner stores, pharmacies and grocery stores aremade from 100 percent virgin tree fiber. This includes Kleenex brand tissue products.
Kimberly-Clark continues to purchase more than 3 million metric tonnes (3.3 million tons) of virgin tree fiber to make disposable tissue products, much of which comes from ancient and endangered forests like the Canadian Boreal Forest. Less than 19 percent of the pulp that Kimberly-Clark uses for its products in North America, 39 percent in Europe and 29 percent globally comes from recycled sources and most of this is used in tissue products sold to large institutions, like stadiums and office buildings, rather than to the average consumer.
The use of recycled material for the whole tissue product industry is approximately 60 percent. This stands in stark contrast to other tissue and toilet paper manufacturers like Cascades. Cascades is North America's fourth largest tissue paper manufacturer. 97 percent of the material it uses comes from recycled sources.
Also, when WWF asked Kimberly-Clark to identify the percentage of recycled fibres in its products in Europe it refused futher putting into doubt that its consumer products contain much recycled fibres at all.
Top
Claim 6: Kimberly-Clark claims: 100 percent virgin fibre for premium products like Kleenex is in line with industry standards and consumer preference.
Our Answer:
There are many tissue products on the market that contain a very high percentage of recycled fibres and are just as soft and strong as 100 percent virgin fibre tissue products. Kimberly-Clark is choosing to ignore consumers' preference for forest friendly tissue products and their demands for tissue products that have a high post-consumer recycled content instead.
Top
Claim 7: Kimberly-Clark claims: K-C Supports Third-Party Forest Certification and Holds Suppliers to High Standards of Sustainability
Our Answer:
Kimberly-Clark buys the majority of its pulp from logging operations that do not meet Greenpeace's recognised standard of sustainability. A sustainable forest is one that is managed according to high environmental and social standards, which protect both the ecology of the forest and the cultural and social values they provide to the local communities that depend upon them.
To date, Greenpeace considers only one set of standards to be a credible measure of sustainability: the Forest Stewardship Council™'s (FSC®) management and certification system. The Forest Stewardship Council™incorporates rigorous environmental, social and economic requirements for sustainable forest management and is truly independent from the logging industry.
Many of the logging companies that Kimberly-Clark does buy pulp from are certified by such schemes as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). Both of these systems are created by industry for industry and are neither ecologically nor socially progressive. As well, neither are supported by environmental groups like Greenpeace.
Kimberly-Clark should commit to purchasing what virgin fiber it does buy from FSC®-certified logging operations. More information about the failings of the SFI and CSA schemes is available in the On the Ground report.
If companies like Kimberly-Clark publically indicated a preference for Forest Stewardship Council™eco-certified fiber this would help drive logging companies to produce more of this type of sustainable fiber.
Top