Kimberly-Clark in early June elevated its chief sustainability officer to a C-suite position and made a dedication to cease counting on “pure forests” for its paper merchandise.
The corporate needs a 50 % discount in pure forest fiber by 2025 on its approach to “pure forest-free” standing at some unspecified time after 2030.
Its definition of pure forests contains old-growth forests and those who naturally generate, often these in boreal and temperate ranges. The $20 billion maker of Huggies diapers, Kleenex tissues and Kotex menstrual merchandise has already lowered its use of fiber from pure forests in Canada and Latin America by 39 % since its 2011 baseline, in accordance with its 2023 sustainability progress report revealed June 4.
Canada and Alaska comprise about 25 % of the world’s remaining intact major forests. A lot of Kimberly-Clark’s fiber is from there, the Southeastern U.S., and from plantations in Brazil and Chile. There are vital biodiversity impacts with northern forest logging, particularly for species comparable to caribou. Extra frequent wildfires in Canada have elevated these dangers.
The corporate has additionally dedicated to sourcing 90 % of its fiber from “environmentally most well-liked sources.” These embody recycled paper, wooden from eucalyptus plantations or managed forests licensed by the Forest Stewardship Council; and fiber from wheat straw, sugar cane, sorghum and others.
“We’ve had a few years now of exploring a number of various fibers which can be extra plant-based, so we really feel fairly excited concerning the future,” stated Lisa Morden. She was named Kimberly-Clark’s first chief sustainability officer June 4 after a couple of dozen years in numerous sustainability, security and class administration capabilities.
Nearer linkage with Kimberly-Clark board
Kimberly-Clark additionally promoted Morden to a C-suite title, reporting to the corporate’s chief provide chain officer, the place she is going to extra frequently work together with committees which have collective oversight of the Irving, Texas, firm’s emissions, conservation and different local weather methods.
“I believe it acknowledges the necessity to proceed to focus and speed up and make actually extra targeted useful resource investments round sustainability, after which go ahead,” Morden stated. “That’s extremely thrilling.”
The groups liable for Kimberly-Clark’s environmental, ESG reporting, danger administration, fiber sourcing, water administration and different local weather methods embody:
- An govt steering committee, led by the CSO, that features CEO-appointed enterprise leaders from throughout the corporate.
- A Accountable Sourcing Steering Committee that shares possession of forest/agriculture administration and provide chain human rights, coordinated by the CSO and chief procurement officer.
- A Sustainability Reporting and Disclosure Committee that handles materials assessments and knowledge assortment.
- A board-level committee that considers environmental points within the context of long-term dangers.
- An environmental well being and security steering committee.
These groups meet at the least quarterly, with some assembly month-to-month if attainable, Morden stated.
Forest advocates hope for ‘ripple impact’
The brand new pure forest-free purpose is stronger than Kimberly-Clark’s earlier fiber procurement and deforestation commitments, despite the fact that the corporate hasn’t set a date for reaching it, specialists say.
“Since round a 3rd of probably the most influential corporations in forest-risk provide chains don’t have commitments in any respect, it’s constructive to see that Kimberly-Clark have revealed this with a comparatively bold goal date of 2025,” stated Emma Thomson, a researcher with World Cover, which ranks company forest pledges in an annual report.
The method is stronger due to its deal with compliance by way of formal traceability methods and its pledge to respect Indigenous communities’ assets and territory, Thomson stated.
“These actions signify an enormous step ahead for the bathroom paper producer and for addressing longstanding loopholes in international provide chains that hurt northern forests, and which can hopefully create a ripple impact for extra accountable sourcing throughout the market,” stated Shelley Vinyard, company marketing campaign director for northern forests with the Pure Sources Protection Council.
Kimberly-Clark’s determination to carry suppliers liable for compliance with its new forest degradation and Indigenous rights insurance policies is particularly notable and units it aside from different corporations that buy wooden merchandise, together with Procter & Gamble, Dwelling Depot and Lowe’s, Vinyard stated in a weblog concerning the new coverage.
Wooden options wanted rapidly
Over the previous decade, Kimberly-Clark has invested $40 million in analysis to develop non-wood fiber sources. It wants to hurry up commercialization of options and never merely change to plantations, particularly these transformed from pure forests, stated Nicole Rycroft, founder and govt director of nonprofit Cover.
One factor that continues to be unclear is how a lot of its fiber will likely be sourced sooner or later from recycled sources (that are declining because the world goes digital and makes use of much less paper), from plantations and managed forests, and from non-wood sources.
Analysis reveals fiber sources comparable to wheat straw left over from meals manufacturing have fewer destructive impacts on biodiversity, carbon emissions, water consumption and chemical utilization than wooden, Rycroft stated. “I wish to see them be extra specific about recycled content material and non-wood sources,” she stated. “They’ve the power to speculate and produce their R&D {dollars} to this. If they’re critical about this, they may set bold targets.”
