K-C Australia’s Millicent and Tantanoola mills share a goal to recycle 100 percent of all waste and avoid any waste to landfill.

While a Green Team is appointed to implement the initiative, Mill Managers Scott Whicker (Millicent) and Bill Beumer (Tantanoola) say all employees, suppliers and contractors are working toward the effort. The Green Team, led by Josef Marzouk, Millicent mill environmental engineer, has many programs already in place.

For example, all scrap metal is recycled by a local scrap metal merchant. Waste bark and sawdust from Tantanoola’s pulp mill wood chipping operation and waste paper sludge from the Millicent mill tissue machines is shipped to a local composter who recycles it into potting mix.

Millicent mill’s new tissue machine soon will divert tissue dust and waste to a nearby worm farm. The materials are mashed up as food for the worms. This vericompost is used as an organic fertilizer.

Right now, about 98 percent of all waste from both mills is diverted from landfill via recycling – it’s the remaining 2 percent that’s a real challenge for the Green Team, but they aren’t giving up. In fact, Josef says the worm farm recently began using the plant’s used material handling bags to package their vericompost.

Both mills also are testing segregating office waste into four streams: organic (paper, food scraps); plastic (with recyclable symbol); bottles/cans (legislated 10c rebate provided with proceeds donated to charity); and non-recyclable waste (food packaging, cling wrap).

Electronic waste, such as old computers and screens, is recycled via direct boiler ash rather than landfill. Soon the Tantanoola mill will divert boiler ash and chemical recovery waste into compost as well.

“We are making positive steps, and the enthusiasm around the plants is increasing as we all realize we can make a difference,” Josef says. “Achieving zero waste is possible and it’s becoming a reality here.”

Thank you, Josef and The Green Team, for unleashing the best in ourselves and our teams!

It takes a clever person to identify out-of-the-box sales opportunities, and an even cleverer one to sell the idea to others. Yuhan-Kimberly’s JongGu Kang is one.

“I’m always looking for ways to increase sales by enhancing product placement,” he says. “Recently, I saw an opportunity at one of our key customer accounts. While maneuvering between some shelves in the store with the manager, I noticed a spot in the women’s lingerie section that was empty, due to a pillar sticking out from the wall. It was too small to merchandise lingerie, but I thought it would be perfect to set up a special shelf for KOTEX ANYDAY® pantiliners alongside the women’s panties. I believed setting up the additional shelf there would be an effective approach since our ads claim the pantiliners feel ‘just like cotton underwear.’”

Unfortunately, the store manager didn’t agree with his merchandising strategy at first. JongGu had his work cut out for him.

JongGu approached the lingerie department manager and the store manager to explain his synergy strategy and potential improved sales performances. The store team bought into the idea and JongGu went to work.

Sales of pantiliners and panties soared 60 percent from the previous year and his efforts are an exemplary case study for other Yuhan-Kimberly salespersons.

JongGu hasn’t stopped. He and his team are constructing advertisement boards in empty spots in stores for KLEENEX® Cotton Soft Delux tissue, recently launched in March 2008. So far, three stores have placed the advertisement boards in their stores and KLEENEX tissue sales are off and running in those stores.

Thank you, JongGu, for taking smart risks!

Will KLEENEX® tissue be the latest fashion accessory everyone talks about? You bet, if Khachitporn (Cat) Kruajaruskul has anything to say about it.

The K-C Thailand Family Care product manager knows innovation and fashion are at the forefront of her brand positioning for KLEENEX tissue, so she set out looking at research, trends and product innovation. What transpired is nothing less than modern classic.

“We launched KLEENEX Vintage earlier this year targeting modern women who prefer classic fashion,” Cat says. “We use vintage graphics and patterns that are applied not only on the cartons, but on the tissue itself. We use special printing techniques such as spot UV lamination and carton embossment to create unique textures and distinct looks for each of the three carton designs.”

Cat says her objective is to reinforce the KLEENEX brand as innovative and fashionable, as well as establish its presence in the growing printed segment.

“The launch is a significant landmark for K-C in serving today’s modern women,” she says. “The exclusive design is only available in Thailand.”

An exclusive new launch deserves a big media splash, so Cat and her team held a fashion show in downtown Bangkok to present the stylish collections using famous local celebrity models to kick off the campaign. They’re also advertising in top fashion magazines and holding promotions at Bangkok’s vintage-style stores and restaurants.

“We hope that KLEENEX Vintage will induce trial and consumption of not only the fashion trend setters, but also the mass consumers who are likely to follow those fashion trends,” she says.

Thank you, Cat, for igniting a spirit of innovation in everything we do!

A simple question, an inexpensive T-shirt and little ingenuity were a winning combination for two K-C Health Care salesmen.

In January 2008, Dennis Swanton, channel account consultant for New England and New York and Mike Heffernan, Eastern Region channel sales manager, attended the Yankee Dental Show in Boston, Massachusetts. Standing out among vendors at the tradeshow can be daunting and expensive. But not for the duo, who started asking dentists and dental hygienists ‘Do you love your gloves?’

“This question really made customers think and many replied ‘no,’” Dennis says. “The customers would then try on the KIMBERLY-CLARK* STERLING* nitrile exam gloves and exclaim how much they loved them. I took home 160 sales leads.”

Building on that success, Dennis took the T-shirts to more shows where they and STERLING nitrile exam gloves again were a hit. So when K-C Health Care launched LAVENDER* exam gloves in late 2008, it was only natural that the two took lavender-colored “Do you love your gloves?” T-shirts to the Greater New York Dental Show.

“The show was attended by more than 20,000 dentists and dental hygienists from all over world,” Dennis says. “The LAVENDER glove really took off and I was able to bring on two local and one national distributor.”

And when the pair returned to the Yankee Dental Show this January, “dental hygienists were asking us if we loved our gloves and they wanted our T-shirts,” Dennis says. “I traded my shirt for an order of 10 cases. The energy level was incredible and we wrote over $6,000 in business in two days.”

The two finalized several deals at the show totaling more than $325,000 in annual business.

“The dental shows were a great avenue of getting in front of a large number of potential customers,” Heffernan says. “And the T-shirts made our message and product even more compelling.”

Thank you, Dennis and Mike, for taking smart risks!

Rebecca Johnson can appreciate the value placed on employee benefits. As the former spouse of a custom homebuilder, her family didn’t enjoy the opportunity to participate in a corporate benefits program. Today, the senior communications specialist knows the advantages that company benefits provide. She’s passionate about helping employees make the best use of their K-C benefits.

“When I took this position, it was clear that K-C is serious about making benefits easier to understand and the information convenient to find,” she says. “My Benefit team partners are encouraging as I look for ways to improve the process.”

Rebecca recently transformed the Annual Enrollment guide into an 8-page self-mailer format vs. the former booklet that had to be stuffed into an envelope and mailed. Using bullets and pullout boxes to bring attention to key points, her goal was to make the guide more engaging, easier to understand and more cost effective.

“We saved US$37,000, or 57 percent of last year’s project cost for printing and distributing, by changing to a self-mailer,” Rebecca says. “We can take advantage of a lower first-class postage rate when we skip the large envelope. By simplifying the process, we saved money without compromising the quality of the information, and hopefully, made it easier to understand.

“We also saved paper and mailing costs by including the dependent reminder postcard in the main guide. Our K-C business teams are doing a wonderful job of watching costs and resources for the bottom line. I hope they know that the function folks are looking for ways to save, too.”

Thank you, Rebecca, for igniting a spirit of innovation in everything we do!

Kay Lynn Mahan hates to throw things away, especially if it has some good use left. That’s a big reason she and a small group of employees in Neenah, Wisconsin, started a grass-roots effort to auction excess product to employees and donate the proceeds to a local charity.

“Any time we run a trial on one of our new products or a competitor product we order extra amounts to accommodate the test,” says Kay Lynn, project lead for toiletries. “We literally had skids of diapers, towels, toilet paper, feminine and adult care products taking up valuable space in our warehouses. Rather than just sending it to a landfill, we investigated other possibilities.”

The auction idea was born.

“The first year we opened the online auction to infant care employees. We worked with many departments to get the project up and running including legal, finance and IT. We raised $3,500 for the Volunteers in Action organization in Neenah.”

Year two, the group grew to 20 volunteers, raised $7,500 for the local American Red Cross chapter and expanded to include child care employees.

This year, Kay Lynn reports they auctioned 600 products and raised $20,000 for the local Make-A-Wish Foundation, the foundation's second largest donation ever.

All 3,000 Neenah employees were invited to participate in the auction in 2007.

“Through our donation, four children’s wishes came true,” Kay Lynn says. “That’s worth all the time and effort alone.”

Thank you, Kay Lynn, for unleashing the best in ourselves and our teams!