Cut and Run

Cut and Run uses government information, independent audits, public records, and satellite mapping to document Kimberly-Clark’s management and logging of the Kenogami Forest near Thunder Bay, Ontario. It details how, in just 70 years, the Kenogami Forest has been turned from a vast expanse of healthy, near-pristine forest, to a severely damaged landscape rife with social and environmental problems⎯largely to make products that are used once and then thrown away.

The case of the Kenogami Forest sheds light on the stark contrast between Kimberly-Clark’s claims to sustainability and the reality of its operations on the ground. It shows, for example, that the company ignored its previous policy prohibiting the use of “environmentally significant” old-growth in consumer products. It also shows that Kimberly-Clark logged healthy forests to produce pulp, while its executives claimed that the boreal fibre used in its products came from “waste.” And it shows that Kimberly-Clark’s current policy permits the purchase of fibre from intact and old-growth forests, including threatened species habitat and areas logged without the prior and informed consent of the Aboriginal communities whose territories are affected.

The fact that Kimberly-Clark planned and implemented environmentally and socially destructive logging operations while at the same assuring its customers, its shareholders, and the public that all its operations were environmentally sustainable and socially beneficial speaks to the company’s disregard for communities and forests.

By increasing the amount of recycled content across its full line of products, the company could reduce the pressure on forests like Kenogami. And by adopting a policy that prohibits the use of fibre from endangered forests; that makes meaningful commitments to fibre certified by the Forest Stewardship Council; and that prohibits the use of fibre from areas logged without the prior and informed consent of local First Nations, it could ensure that the forestry operations it sourced from were truly sustainable.