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Kimberly Clark's Web of Plies

Profile

With a global market share of 13.8 percent, and sales of $15.1 billion in 2004, Kimberly-Clark (K-C) sits comfortably atop the tissue industry. The Texas-based conglomerate owns popular consumer brands such as Scott, Huggies, Cottonelle and Kleenex. K-C’s products account annually for more than three million tons of virgin forest fiber.

Rhetoric

The most prominent portion of Kimberly-Clark’s homepage connects to a two-page pamphlet entitled Sustainable Forestry Practices, which links to the company’s more extensive 2004 Sustainability Report. In these two documents K-C claims that:

• They requires that each of its fiber suppliers will adhere to one of five widely recognized forest certification systems by the end of 2005.
• Their use of virgin and recycled fiber meets industry standards.
• The company does not source fiber from virgin rainforests or ecologically significant old growth areas, “including designated areas in Canada’s Boreal Forest.”
• Less than 15 percent of K-C’s fiber comes from the Boreal Forest.

“In summary,” the company concludes, “we are taking a responsible approach on forestry issues – both in Canada and around the world.”

Reality

The Kleenex cover-up. Image: Bear Mountain Trading Co.

Kleenex? Make that a Kleercut. Kleenex, the eponymous facial tissue, contains zero recycled content. The odds are good that a given sheet of Kleenex – or double-sheet, or triple-ply infused with lotion, aloe and vitamin E – was harvested from North America’s last remaining tract of ancient forest, the Boreal. Since the last ice age, the Boreal Forest has spanned from Canada’s Alaskan border to its eastern Labrador coast. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, as much as 30 percent of K-C’s forest fiber comes from the Boreal – more than double the level publicized by K-C, though the NRDC determined its estimate with K-C’s own internal data.

Within the Boreal, tens of millions of acres are sprawling stands of pine, spruce and fir. The forest is home to moose , bears, lynx, wolves, eagles, 30 percent of North America’s songbirds and 40 percent of its waterfowl. Though the Boreal represents a full quarter of the world’s ancient forests, just eight percent of its area is protected – a token that buys K-C the rights to brag about conserving “designated areas.”

On average, trees harvested from the Boreal take between 70 and 90 years to regenerate, yet K-C declares that all of its operations are “sustainable.” The company’s logic is that if, for example, forestry and paper companies like K-C clearcut and replant only 10 percent of the Boreal every 7 to 9 years, then they won't run out of trees, at least not for the forseeable future. While this may be technically true, the forest will be destroyed in the process.

Forestry's sign of sustainability.

K-C uses fibers supplied under five different certification systems [p. 30], but these systems are not equivalent. Expressing a view shared widely by environmental advocates and independent forestry experts, the Natural Resources Defense Council holds the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to be “the only credible forest certification system.” In 2004, just 5.3 percent of certified fiber purchased by K-C (that year, roughly a third of its fiber was non-certified) was FSC-certified. K-C laments that not enough FSC-certified fiber exists to meet the company’s demand – a hollow claim from a company with billions-worth of carrots to dangle before potential suppliers. This is exactly how logging companies should become FSC certified. If their buyers demand it, they will do it.

The company’s leading certification system is the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), which in 2004 signed off on 71.1 percent of K-C’s certified fiber. Launched by the American Forestry and Paper Association, a lobbying group, SFI is basically a front for the logging industry. A majority of its board members have industry ties, while 82 percent of SFI’s money comes from members of the founding Association, according to the Rainforest Action Coalition.

Another of K-C’s preferred systems, responsible for 11 percent and growing of its certified fiber, is Cerflor in Brazil. In June 2005, a study commissioned by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification found that Cerflor fell short of chain-of-custody standards, meaning that buyers of Cerflor-certified fiber should be wary of its actual origins.

Even FSC-certified is no substitute for recycled fiber, which makes up 19 percent of K-C’s North American tissue and paper towel products. K-C says its continental competitors do no better, a blantant lie in light of the 96 percent recycled procurement of Cascades, North America’s fifth largest tissue producer. By 2007, the leftover four percent of Cascades’ virgin pulp will be FSC-certified. Other manufacturers, including Seventh Generation and Marcal, sell 100 percent recycled products

Recommendation

To lose the title of greenwasher, Kimberly-Clark will have do more than help conserve a token portion of the Boreal – it will have to get out of the ancient forest destruction business altogether. In addition, the company needs to reduce its use of virgin fiber, especially SFI-certified fiber. FSC-certified should be Kimberly-Clark’s only variety of virgin fiber.

Until this happens, consumers are advised to stay away from their products, and look for more sustainable options such as Seventh Generation or Cascades products. Even better is to minimize your use of throwaway paper products. As green gets sexy, handkerchiefs are coming back in style.

Protect the future: go retro. Image: GoodHumans.com

Visit the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Shoppers Guide to Home Tissue Products, presenting forest-friendly alternatives to K-C’s Kleercut and other destructive brands.

Take Action

On November 3, 2005, a coalition of environmental groups led a day of action targeting Kimberly-Clark. “Thousands of concerned citizens in cities across the country are letting companies know that they do not want ancient forests turned into throwaway paper products when viable alternatives exist,” said Pamela Wellner of Greenpeace.“ Shoppers are using their dollars to demand that companies like Kimberly-Clark become responsible corporate citizens.”

Join the cause by telling K-C CEO Thomas Falk to stop deforesting the Boreal, increase K-C’s procurement of recycled fiber, and restrict its virgin fiber to FSC-certified. Take Action here.

home > take greenwash to the cleaners > greenwasher of the month > December 2005