Green Options

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce promotes itself as the “voice of business” by representing business ideas and interests in Washington.  Really?  If this is true, then why are so many businesses leaving the Chamber?  So far, high profile utility companies such as Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric and PNM Resources have left the business association.  Apple recently sent a letter to the Chamber’s CEO, Tom Donahue, resigning their membership effective immediately.  It appears the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is doing an inadequate job of representing current business interests.  So what is all the defections and hoopla about?  Climate Change…

Last week Greenpeace said it was okay to buy Kimberly-Clark (K-C) products again so I loaded up my shopping cart with Kleenex, Scott paper towels and Cottonelle toilet paper.  After years of fighting, Greenpeace and K-C finally reached an agreement.  The corporation will begin sourcing fiber responsibly, and the NGO will end its Kleercut campaign.  It seems pretty cut-and-dry to me.  Or is it?

Sites such as Treehugger.com and Grist.org applauded the agreement.  Even the environmental organization, ForestEthics told Grist that K-C’s new sourcing policy “is among the strongest in the world … truly impressive.  ForestEthics congratulates Greenpeace and allies for a campaign well run.”  Wow, I’m getting all teary-eyed just reading the accolades.  I think I need a Kleenex.  So why are some folks crying foul?

It’s a good day for Kleenex.  After almost five years of hard campaigning, Greenpeace promised to end its Kleercut campaign against Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest tissue-product manufacturer of Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle products.  During a joint news conference in Washington D.C., the large corporation and the controversial non-governmental organization (NGO) announced an historic agreement that will ensure greater protection and sustainable management of Canada’s Boreal Forest.

Kimberly-Clark, makers of Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Scott products has ”set a goal of obtaining 100 percent of the wood fiber for its products — including its flagship brand, Kleenex— from environmentally responsible sources. By the end of 2011, the company will no longer use any pulp from the Boreal Forest unless it is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified. The policy also prevents the company from cutting endangered forests, and increases the company’s use of FSC-certified pulp and recycled fiber globally.”

Finally.

Greenpeace and countless other activists have been after Kimberly- Clark since 2004 trying to get them to stop clear cutting ancient forests, especially the North American Boreal.

This post was originally published on Eco-Libris’ blog on February 26.

How green is your toilet paper? Not sure? Here’s the guide that will give you the answers: Greenpeace has just released on Monday its latest Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide.

The report is providing customers with important information about tissue products and toilet paper using 3 criteria: usage of 100% recycled paper, at least 50% post consumer recycled paper and bleached without toxic chlorine compounds.

Each category includes ranking of brands, where products that meet 3 criteria are recommended, products that meet 2 criteria are defined as “can do better” and products that meet only one or no criteria at all are “to be avoided”.

Let’s focus for a minute on toilet paper, the most popular product among the ones reviewed in this report. The brand in the first place is Green Forest, which uses 100 percent recycled and 90 percent post-consumer content, as well as chlorine-free manufacturing processes. Other brands that are also recommended are: 365, Natural Value and Seventh Generation.

And who’s to be avoided? Well, when it comes to toilet paper you will find there few familiar names: Scott, Target, Wal-Mart, Kleenex Cottonelle, Chramin, Quilted Northern and Angel Soft. According to the report they all use zero recycled paper (and of course zero post consumer content) and are bleached with chlorine compounds [just take into consideration the follwoing comment from Greenpeace: In the few cases where companies did not respond to our request for verification of recycled content percentages and whitening processes used, we assumed 0% overall recycled, 0% post-consumer recycled and ECF bleaching.]

I’m reading an advance copy of Auden Schendler’s “Getting Green Done,” coming out next week. It’s filled with lots of wisdom from the front lines and its a great read. It has also given me some great insights for the book I’m writing on greening small businesses. I thought I’d share three nuggets of wisdom with you here:

1. Sustainable practices are proving to make business sense—but ethics also have to play a role. We all know that sustainable business, is good business. For example, a recent Aberdeen Group study of green practices among retailers found that green mandates were “essential cost control and customer service practices.” On average, best-in-class retailers achieved a 20% decrease in energy costs, an 8% decrease in their overall logistics and transport costs, and a 5% decrease in merchandise costs through their green initiatives. But, Schendler says, ROI is not enough:

“Ethics have to play a role…an economic pitch in a vacuum may not make sense to managers if there’s no context, no broader environmental mission within the company.”

His point is that it may be easier to “sell” sustainability when you start by getting everyone at the table to agree/admit that businesses have a responsibility to help protect the environment.

2. Do a sexy project. Schendler’s advice is to start the greening process with things that you will find fun to implement. Things that interest you. Things that are sexy. This will get everyone engaged.

I just met with Auden Schendler, Director of Sustainability for Aspen Ski Company. I had some questions for him about the book I’m writing on greening small businesses and he was kind enough to spend a good deal of time with me discussing small businesses and climate change.

Schendler, a charismatic, hunky guy, politely suggested that talking about greening business operations was a distraction from the real issue. Helping small businesses implement recycling programs and change their CFLs let businesses off the hook for doing the tough stuff: effecting public policy change. My book would be insignificant. Ouch!

After further discussion, Schendler begrudgingly conceded that greening your business was necessary and also essential for lending yourself credibility.  His bigger point, however, was that greening should be done concurrently with higher order activities.  He wants to make sure that before we discuss how to green your business, we discuss how to effect public policy or how to green all your customer’s activities.  In other words, since we can’t all afford to install solar panels, we all need to make climate change policy our business. In fact, it seems like Schendler believes that your time may be as valuable to environmental progress as your CFLs.