Accelerates alternative fiber strategies
with new ambition to be 100% Natural Forest Free across product
portfolio beyond 2030
Appoints Lisa
Morden as Chief Sustainability Officer
DALLAS, June 5, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark today published its annual
sustainability report, including an update on the company's
progress toward its 2030 sustainability goals and a new
ambition to be 100% Natural Forest Free across its portfolio beyond
2030.
Over the past decade, the company has made significant
investments in developing more sustainable products as part of the
company's innovation strategy and focus on delivering products with
enhanced consumer benefits while striving to lower its
environmental footprint.
"Sustainability is woven into the fabric of our 152-year-old
company's innovation strategy and purpose, serving as a guiding
principle across every facet of our operations," said
Mike Hsu, Chairman and CEO at
Kimberly-Clark. "I am proud of our team's commitment to our
purpose of Better Care for a Better World, focusing on where we
believe we can make the biggest impact."
Key highlights of the company's 2023 progress include:
- Better Planet: Building on Kimberly-Clark's
long-standing support of sustainable forest management, the
company's 100% Natural Forest Free commitment will greatly reduce
its nature footprint since forests play a critical role in
protecting biodiversity and helping mitigate climate change.
Kimberly-Clark expects to be more than halfway to this goal by
2030.
In 2023, the company surpassed its 2030 water footprint target and
bolstered the utilization of alternative energy sources such as
wind and solar power, including the launch of a new virtual
purchase power agreement (VPPA) in the form of an onshore wind farm
in Scotland and the initiation of
several renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs).
The company has achieved an absolute reduction in operational
(Scope 1 and 2) GHG emissions of 40.9% towards its goal of a 50%
reduction by 2030, and a 10.4% energy efficiency improvement over
its 2015 baseline.
- Better Products: In the past year, Kimberly-Clark
continued to seek more sustainable solutions to strengthen its
product offerings, for instance introducing the company's
first-ever Kotex® paper pouch; and launching reusable
menstrual and incontinence solutions in markets around the globe.
Kimberly-Clark also continued to prioritize the procurement of
fibers from sources with sustainable forest management
certification while pursuing ongoing investments in alternative
fibers solutions. The company has reduced its plastics footprint by
16.4% towards its goal of a 50% reduction by 2030 over its 2019
baseline.
- Better Society: Kimberly-Clark's essential and
well-known brands such as Huggies®, Kleenex®, Kotex® and
Cottonelle® make a positive societal impact in communities in
which the company operates through social impact programs and
collaboration with global and local NGOs. In 2023 alone, the
company estimates that its brand programs – combined with global
and local partnerships – impacted 101 million people worldwide.
This included helping empower women and girls, enhancing maternal
and child health, and working to improve access to safe water and
sanitation.
- Better Workplace: As part of Kimberly-Clark's
efforts to cultivate a culture where employees feel supported,
valued and included, the company invested in engaging its workforce
at global and regional levels. Kimberly-Clark's executive
leadership team (ELT) hosted sessions with the company's top 200
business unit and functional leaders globally to help them
understand how to demonstrate performance-driven leadership through
the qualities of presence, courage, candor and transparency; and
how to address barriers to performance-driven leadership. The ELT
then partnered with these leaders to cascade the information to
employees and their team leaders.
Further, in 2023, Kimberly-Clark strengthened its human rights due
diligence and supplier engagement processes, including more robust
risk segmentation, monitoring tools and supply chain mapping and by
connecting suppliers with resources and experts to improve their
human rights performance.
The company also appointed Lisa
Morden, formerly Vice President of Safety, Sustainability,
and Occupational Health to the role of Chief Sustainability
Officer.
"We are proud of our progress and, in 2023, we continued to
address challenges associated with single-use plastics, carbon
emissions, and water use in our operations and value chain, while
working to decrease forest reliance and increasing our use of
renewable energy," said Morden. "We recognize that
there are still challenges and opportunities ahead and we remain
dedicated to supporting a more sustainable future for all."
Kimberly-Clark partners with a wide range of stakeholders and
nonprofit organizations to deliver innovative products and
solutions to improve the future for babies and children, including
UNICEF.
Since 2015, Kimberly-Clark has provided over $24 million in funding to UNICEF to help
strengthen neonatal health systems, increase access to safe water
and sanitation, promote safe menstrual health and hygiene, and
support early childhood development, resulting in nearly 14 million
lives impacted across 26 countries. Additionally, Kimberly-Clark
has donated over $4.6 million to
UNICEF's humanitarian responses, including during emergencies in
Colombia, Haiti, India,
Peru, Puerto Rico, and global support during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
"Kimberly-Clark is a longstanding partner and with their
continued commitment, UNICEF can reach vulnerable children and
communities with the resources needed to survive and
thrive," said Michael J.
Nyenhuis, President and CEO, UNICEF USA. "Together, we can build a more
equitable world for every child and change the lives of millions
more with sustainable and scalable solutions."
Kimberly-Clark's annual sustainability report and accompanying
disclosures demonstrate the company's progress through stories that
highlight its work around the world as well as key data and metrics
prepared in compliance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) disclosures.
The reporting covers the time frame of Jan.
1, 2023 through Dec. 31, 2023.
For more information on the topics in this report, please visit the
sustainability page on Kimberly-Clark.com.
About Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and
its trusted brands are an indispensable part of life for people in
more than 175 countries. Fueled by ingenuity, creativity, and an
understanding of people's most essential needs, we create products
that help individuals experience more of what's important to them.
Our portfolio of brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex,
Cottonelle, Poise, Depend, Andrex, Pull-Ups, GoodNites, Intimus,
Plenitud, Sweety, Softex, Viva and WypAll, hold No. 1 or No. 2
share positions in approximately 70 countries. We use sustainable
practices that support a healthy planet, build strong communities,
and ensure our business thrives for decades to come. We are proud
to be recognized as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies(R) by
Ethisphere for the sixth year in a row and one of Fortune's Most
Innovative Companies in America in 2024. To keep up with the latest
news and to learn more about the company's 150-year history of
innovation, visit the Kimberly-Clark website.
Forward Looking Statements
All statements in this news
release that are not historical, including goals for and
projections of future results, the expected execution and effect of
our sustainability strategies and initiatives and the amounts and
timing of their expected impact, constitute forward-looking
statements that are based on management's expectations and beliefs
concerning future events impacting the company.
Many factors outside our control, including competitive
pressures, evolving legal and regulatory requirements, and societal
and market conditions globally and in the markets in which we do
business, could cause actual results to vary. Issues identified as
material for purposes of this release may not be considered
material for SEC reporting purposes. There can be no assurance that
these future events will occur as anticipated. Forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date they were made, and we
undertake no obligation to publicly update them. Please see
Kimberly-Clark's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent
SEC filings for a discussion of risk factors as they relate to
forward-looking statements.
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SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Corporation