Greenpeace and Kimberly-Clark Reach Agreement
Maker of Kleenex Pledges to Protect Canada's Boreal Forest
On August 5, 2009, Greenpeace and Kimberly-Clark, the world's largest manufacturer of tissue products and maker of Kleenex brand facial tissues, made a joint announcement at a news briefing in Washington, DC. The company committed to a strengthened policy that will help to ensure greater protection and sustainable management of Canada's boreal forest.
The Boreal Forest
The Canadian boreal forest is the largest old growth forest in North America and is home to a variety of threatened wildlife species, such as woodland caribou and the wolverine. It also is a habitat for more than one million migratory birds each year. According to Greenpeace, the forest is the largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon on the planet, storing 27 years worth, or 186 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, making protection of the forest crucial to world efforts to stop climate change.
Kimberly-Clark pledged to no longer use pulp from the three million hectare Kenogami and Ogoki Forests of northern Ontario unless strict ecological criteria are met. These two areas are parts of intact forest zones that were at the centre of Greenpeace's Kleercut campaign.
The Kleercut Campaign
For five years prior to the agreement being reached earlier this month, Greenpeace waged the Kleercut Campaign that focused on Kimberly-Clark and its brands. Launched in November 2004, the campaign highlighted the issue of ancient forests in Canada and their lack of protection by staging hundreds of protests throughout the world. Over 50 activists were arrested in acts of civil disobedience, a long time peaceful tactic used by Greenpeace. Along with the global protests, the campaign produced scientific and exposé reports and engaged shareholders of Kimberly-Clark. Media coverage was another key factor in the campaign, a tactic Greenpeace has mastered since the first anti-whaling voyages in the 1970s.
By targeting the marketplace and the customers of Kimberly-Clark, the Kleercut Campaign applied pressure on the company that eventually concluded with the company releasing a strong paper policy that will surely have effects on other major tissue product manufacturers. As part of the agreement, Greenpeace announced the end of the Kleercut campaign against the company.
"Today, ancient forests like the Boreal Forest have won," said Greenpeace Canada forest campaign coordinator Richard Brooks at the press conference on August 5. "I expect to a large ripple effect from this policy and its implementation for years to come. We have moved a mountain and that is going to have impacts around the world.”
A Successful Year for Canadian Forests
This groundbreaking agreement with Kimberly-Clark comes just months after the victory of Greenpeace's campaign to protect the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. At the end of March, the provincial government put into place the final aspects of the protection plan, making it the most comprehensive rainforest conversation plan in North America. The area protected within the Great Bear Rainforest is now equivalent to the size of Belgium. The success was the result of a tireless decade-long campaign by Greenpeace and a coalition of other environmental groups working in partnership with aboriginal communities, forestry corporations and the provincial government.
Additional Resources
Highlights from Kimberly-Clark's Global Fibre Procurement Policy
View of Intact Part of the Boreal Forest
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