Features Environment & Sustainability Tissue
Kimberly-Clark progressing toward sustainability goals

July 4, 2018 – Kimberly-Clark has reported its progress toward achieving its Sustainability 2022 goals that include creating social, environmental and business value.

“We continue to make strides in our efforts to create positive social and environmental change,” Thomas J. Falk, Kimberly-Clark’s chairman and chief executive officer, said. “That’s why we are committed to an ambitious set of sustainability goals that will have a lasting impact on the people we serve around the world and the communities we touch.”

Kimberly-Clark’s 2017 Global Sustainability Report outlines the company’s strategies and results in greater detail, and is organized and presented in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards, Core level. Key outcomes include:

• Social Impact – In the first two years, the lives of 4.3 million people in need worldwide have benefited through programs that increase access to sanitation, help children thrive and empower women and girls.

• Forests & Fibre – Sourced 89 per cent of the fibre used in tissue products from environmentally preferred sources, including FSC® certified virgin fibre and recycled fibre.

• Waste & Recycling – Further increased the amount of waste diverted from landfills (includes both manufacturing and non-manufacturing facilities) to 95 per cent.

• Energy & Climate – Lowered the absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 18 per cent (from 2005 baseline) through improved energy efficiency and increased use of alternative energy sources.

• Supply Chain – Invested in watershed analyses, as well as water treatment and recycling technologies, to further reduce water consumption in water stressed areas.

Additionally, Kimberly-Clark announced expanded programming in several key areas.

The company began measuring and reporting on Scope 3 GHG emissions – the indirect emissions that occur both upstream and downstream in the value chain – and will establish reduction targets later this year. The company worked with the World Resources Institute and World Wildlife Fund to identify the company’s primary sources of Scope 3 emissions.

This work comes on the heels of a major commitment in 2017 to annually purchase approximately 1,000,000 megawatt hours of renewable wind energy, equivalent to about one-third of the electricity needs of Kimberly-Clark’s North American manufacturing operations.