WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Scott, announced a new plan to replace wood pulp with hesperaloe, a drought-tolerant desert plant. Wood pulp for tissue products is a major driver of clearcut logging in the boreal forest of Canada and other climate-critical forests. Following years of engagement and advocacy from NRDC and other organizations, Kimberly-Clark stated it would take steps to eliminate natural forest fiber from its entire product line, and announced this year that they achieved their interim goal of cutting natural forest fiber in half.
Following is a reaction from Shelley Vinyard, Director of Global Nature at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“Kimberly-Clark spent two decades and a quarter of a billion dollars researching sustainable alternatives to forest fibers. That happened because consumers started asking where their toilet paper comes from, and because shareholders started asking how long a business built on clearcut forests can last. Forest fiber stopped looking like a safe default.
“This is just the beginning, but signals a potentially market-shifting breakthrough. If Kimberly-Clark can scale up production of this fiber sustainably and without displacing other native ecosystems, this could alleviate significant pressure on the forests currently used to make tissue products. We also encourage Kimberly-Clark to use this same innovative spirit to continue increasing its use of recycled materials, which have the lowest carbon footprint of all tissue fibers.
“Procter & Gamble, one of Kimberly-Clark’s biggest competitors, should look hard at this announcement and at what it took to get here. If P&G is serious about forest-friendly supply chains, they need to make serious investments in innovation.”
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NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).