Kimberly-Clark Announces Ambitious Sustainable Development Goal For Forest Use

DALLAS, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE:KMB) today laid out a bold vision to significantly reduce its Forest Fiber Footprint, including a goal to transition at least 50 percent of wood fiber sourced from natural forests to alternate fiber sources by 2025. By committing to reduce its Forest Fiber Footprint, Kimberly-Clark adds to an already impressive history of leadership in protecting the world's forest resources and ending deforestation globally. This broad, new initiative will help protect biodiversity and reduce the impacts of fiber that the company uses while ensuring the fiber is sourced in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Equally importantly, the initiative will also help insulate the company from continuing volatile price fluctuations in the world fiber market. The announcement was made in conjunction with the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"We continue to strongly support sustainable forestry where those materials are needed but at the same time we are aggressively exploring high-potential alternatives to the traditional fiber sources used in our industry, while maintaining the high quality standards our customers and consumers have come to expect," says Suhas Apte, Vice President, Global Sustainability for Kimberly-Clark.  "In the long run, we hope that one day all of our fiber needs will be met from sources that collectively have maximum land use efficiencies while minimizing impact on people and our planet."

In 2011, the company used nearly 750 thousand metric tons of primary wood fiber sourced from natural forests. With this new commitment, Kimberly-Clark pledges to cut the amount sourced from natural forests in half by 2025, an amount equivalent to the fiber used to manufacture over three and a half billion rolls of toilet paper. In its tradition of innovation and responsibility, the company's initiative includes exploration of alternative sources of fiber for its products.

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