US Securities and Exchange Commission asked to investigate Kleenex manufacturer’s false environmental claims
US Securities and Exchange Commission asked to investigate Kleenex manufacturer’s false environmental claims
Greenpeace investigation reveals that Kimberly-Clark has been lying to shareholders, the public and regulators since 1998.
Many of you have written to Kimberly-Clark asking them to make Kleenex and other tissue products more forest friendly. In response you’ve likely received a generic response letter that attempts to paint the company in a very “green” light. Included in the response is a statement that the company has a proud environmental record. An example of this record is the fact that the company since at least 1998 does not “source use pulp from coastal temperate rainforests of British Columbia Canada.”
This claim forms one of the central pillars of the company’s Corporate Policy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources. It’s a claim that shown up in a lot of different places over the past 8 years including several of Kimberly-Clark’s annual environmental reports, letters to customers and environmental organizations and in communications to shareholders. It’s even shown up a letter from Kimberly-Clark’s lawyers to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which regulates American corporations.
We decided to look into these claims. And surprise, surprise… we’ve uncovered evidence that Kimberly-Clark has been lying to the public, shareholders, customers and SEC. Possibly for years. In fact, they use very large amounts of pulp from coastal temperate rainforests to manufacture products that are sold throughout North America and shipped to Europe.
You can check out the claims and the evidence of the lies, Greenpeace uncovered in a new report called “Chain of Lies: The Truth About Kimberly-Clark’s Use of Ancient Rainforests for Tissue Products”. The report details the shipment of logs from coastal temperate rainforests in British Columbia to Seattle-area sawmills to the company’s pulp mill in Everett, Washington. The evidence is based in part on US Customs data.
Although we presented this breach of policy information to the company executives, in April at the company’s annual stockholder meeting, to date the company has neither changed its stated policy on coastal temperate rainforest pulp, nor issued a clarifying statement.
One thing is for sure, these false claims cast serious doubt on ALL other environmental claims the company professes to hold true and dear. These include a ban on the use of pulp from virgin rainforests and a prohibition against using pulp from designated ecologically significant old growth forests in the North American Boral and mixed hardwood forests in Indonesia.
If a company’s been lying for years about one ancient forest– could it be possible that they are lying about all the others as well?
You decide.
We’ve asked the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator of corporations, to investigate. Stay tuned.
Please check out the report and media release online at: http://kleercut.net/en/coastal
Keep up the good work,
Richard Brooks
Forest Campaigner Greenpeace
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kleenex
Greenpeace investigation reveals that Kimberly-Clark has been lying to shareholders, the public and regulators since 1998.
Many of you have written to Kimberly-Clark asking them to make Kleenex and other tissue products more forest friendly. In response you’ve likely received a generic response letter that attempts to paint the company in a very “green” light. Included in the response is a statement that the company has a proud environmental record. An example of this record is the fact that the company since at least 1998 does not “source use pulp from coastal temperate rainforests of British Columbia Canada.”
This claim forms one of the central pillars of the company’s Corporate Policy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources. It’s a claim that shown up in a lot of different places over the past 8 years including several of Kimberly-Clark’s annual environmental reports, letters to customers and environmental organizations and in communications to shareholders. It’s even shown up a letter from Kimberly-Clark’s lawyers to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which regulates American corporations.
We decided to look into these claims. And surprise, surprise… we’ve uncovered evidence that Kimberly-Clark has been lying to the public, shareholders, customers and SEC. Possibly for years. In fact, they use very large amounts of pulp from coastal temperate rainforests to manufacture products that are sold throughout North America and shipped to Europe.
You can check out the claims and the evidence of the lies, Greenpeace uncovered in a new report called “Chain of Lies: The Truth About Kimberly-Clark’s Use of Ancient Rainforests for Tissue Products”. The report details the shipment of logs from coastal temperate rainforests in British Columbia to Seattle-area sawmills to the company’s pulp mill in Everett, Washington. The evidence is based in part on US Customs data.
Although we presented this breach of policy information to the company executives, in April at the company’s annual stockholder meeting, to date the company has neither changed its stated policy on coastal temperate rainforest pulp, nor issued a clarifying statement.
One thing is for sure, these false claims cast serious doubt on ALL other environmental claims the company professes to hold true and dear. These include a ban on the use of pulp from virgin rainforests and a prohibition against using pulp from designated ecologically significant old growth forests in the North American Boral and mixed hardwood forests in Indonesia.
If a company’s been lying for years about one ancient forest– could it be possible that they are lying about all the others as well?
You decide.
We’ve asked the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator of corporations, to investigate. Stay tuned.
Please check out the report and media release online at: http://kleercut.net/en/coastal
Keep up the good work,
Richard Brooks
Forest Campaigner Greenpeace
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kleenex
rudkla - 11. Aug, 23:52
