As one
of the largest producers of tissue products, Kimberly-Clark
believes in sustainable forestry and sound environmental practices.
We were the first major tissue company to require wood fiber
suppliers to gain independent certification for their woodlands or
fiber procurement activities.
Today,
99 percent of the wood fiber Kimberly-Clark uses worldwide comes
from certified suppliers.
Sustainable
virgin and recycled fiber can be used responsibly and provide the
performance that consumers expect. This belief is based on a
scientific life-cycle
assessment that compares the environmental impacts
of Kimberly-Clark tissue products with varying levels of
virgin and recycled fiber.
Most Kimberly-Clark consumer products contain natural fibers
derived from wood pulp. Softwood, hardwood fibers and, in many
cases, recycled fibers are combined to deliver softness, strength,
and/or absorbency that consumers expect from our products.
We do not own, manage or harvest any commercial forest land. The
wood pulp we use is mainly sourced from forests in the U.S., Canada
and Brazil. With the closure of our last two pulp mills at the end
of 2011, we now buy all of our virgin fiber from external
suppliers.
Policies and standards for fiber
procurement
We have policies in place to promote sustainable forestry and
audit our suppliers to ensure good performance. Sustainable forest
management ensures the timber used does not exceed the rate at
which the forest can regenerate. These standards are designed to
protect whole forest ecosystems, including the trees, plant life,
soil quality, wildlife and freshwater supply. By adhering to one of
several recognized forestry and chain-of-custody certification
programs, suppliers can demonstrate that their wood fiber products
are responsibly sourced from sustainably managed forests.
Our performance
We committed to employ 40 percent of either recycled fiber or
FSC-certified wood fiber in all North American tissue products by
the end of 2011, which represents an estimated 600,000 tons
annually - an increase of more than 70 percent above 2007. By the
end of 2011, we surpassed this goal with 62.7 percent
environmental preferred fiber (recycled fibers and FSC-certified)
in our North American tissue products.
