K-C Professional Donates $10,000 to The Nature Conservancy

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Kimberly-Clark Professional, Roswell, Ga., USA, reports that, in honor of xpedx, one of its primary distributors, it is making a $10,000 donation to The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Va., to support sustainable forest management efforts in Canada's Boreal Forest. The xpedx branch in Harrisburg, Pa., sold the most K-C Professional Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products to its customers during the first full year that these products were available n 2010.

The FSC-certified products sold by xpedx Harrisburg include a range of Kleenex and Scott brand towels. A full range of products includes Kleenex Naturals facial tissue, Kleenex Cottonelle bath tissue, Scott Coreless bathroom tissue, Kleenex Scottfold towels, and Kleenex and Scott brand hard roll towels.

FSC certification includes essential environmental guarantees that products are produced with wood fiber that comes from well-managed FSC-certified forests, using post-consumer recycled material and/or other controlled sources. The donation will help support The Nature Conservancy's efforts with the implementation of the best management practices in 178 million acres of the Canadian Boreal Forest, the largest amount of land ever involved in such conservation efforts. These efforts will preserve livelihoods and cultures of native tribes, help ensure the vitality of sensitive habitat for woodland caribou and other iconic wildlife, and set the region on a path for the long term management of a forest based economy.

"Our distributors and their customers are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits to people and the environment when they purchase FSC-certified towel and tissue products," said Richard Marriott, North American sustainability lead, K-C Professional. "A few years ago, the FSC label was primarily associated with printing paper and wood products. The success of our FSC-certified towel and tissue offerings shows how much the demand for FSC-certified products has changed in a very short time."

 In August 2009, K-C Professional became the first away-from-home tissue products company in North America to receive FSC chain-of-custody certification for a broad range of tissue and towel products.