By Cindy Tickle •
August 6, 2009
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.
By Jennifer Kaplan •
February 16, 2009
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.
By Jennifer Kaplan •
January 11, 2009
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.
