Greenpeace

Kimberly-Clark and Greenpeace Agree Boreal Forests are Amazing

- Adam Clare

Kimberly-Clark (the makers of Kleenex) and Greenpeace have signed an historic agreement that pledges the protection of the Boreal forest. This is a huge victory for Greenpeace, but it’s even better for those that need the boreal forest to live – that’s you and me.

Implementing the Kimberly-Clark policy

Implementation of the policy will lead to protection of the world’s most endangered forests, increased support for sustainable forest management through Forest Stewardship Council certification and the increased use of recycled fiber in Kimberly-Clark products.

During the evolution of this policy, Kimberly-Clark stopped buying more than 325,000 tonnes of pulp a year from logging operations in the Kenogami and Ogoki Forests. The company managing these forests was unwilling to protect endangered forest areas in them and supply Kimberly-Clark with Forest Stewardship Council certified pulp.

The Boreal Forest and climate change

Protection of the Boreal Forest is crucial to world efforts to stop climate change. This forest is the largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon on the planet, storing 27 years worth of greenhouse gas emissions or 186 billion tonnes. If this carbon is released into the atmosphere it will add to the threat of catastrophic climate change.

Under the policy Kimberly-Clark has set a goal of ensuring that 100 per cent of the fibre used in its products will be from environmentally responsible sources. It will greatly increase its use of recycled fibre and fibre from forest certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards. By 2011, it will also increase the use of recycled and FSC fibre [from North America sources] to 40 per cent from 29.7 per cent in 2007. By 2012, the company will no longer use pulp from the Boreal Forest unless is it certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council.

Six Britons can Change the World

- Adam Clare

They have already influenced the world and now they have a chance to change the law in the UK, thus making our planet a better place. In 2007 six Greenpeace activists climbed a coal tower to protest the use of finite fossil fuels and were subsequently arrested. Their court case has attraced scientists worldwide to voice their support and the charges were dropped against the six – making this a case that shocked the British legal system.

The Guardian has an article on the case and how a movie is being released that celebrates the six activists.

When a demonstration at the Kingsnorth power station in north-east Kent in late 2007 led to the arrest of six climate change activists, what had until then seemed a rather dry local planning issue exploded into a story of national and international concern. The verdict at their trial turned out to have far-reaching implications for activism, the future of coal, even the planet.

Now a 20-minute film, A Time Comes, by the much-admired documentary-maker Nick Broomfield, cuts police and Greenpeace footage of the occupation together with news clips and interviews with the activists. What emerges is how ordinary the Kingsnorth Six are – they could be the bloke next door or the woman across the office – but also how brave and tenacious. The film is released just as the government’s review of its coal policy is expected and campaigners hope and expect the review will define a seismic shift in official attitudes to carbon emissions.

Greenpeace’s Tissue Guide on Your Phone

- Adam Clare

The USA branch of Greenpeace have turned their Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide and turned it into an iPhone app. I hope that other Greenpeace regions do the same thing as I find myself carrying my iPhone around but carrying around an extra booklet all the time can get really annoying. If you’re in Canada, you can download the guide as PDF here.

The Guide makes it quick and easy to find out which brands of facial tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins are truly green and which should be avoided. Our experts have carefully evaluated over 100 brands and recommended those that: contain 100% overall recycled content; contain at least 50% post-consumer recycled content; and are bleached without toxic chlorine compounds.
When you’re doing your grocery shopping or just stopping by the corner store to grab a roll of toilet paper, make an informed decision as both a consumer and someone concerned about the world’s ancient forests.

Ten Victories the Environment had in 2008

- Adam Clare

Planet Save has their top ten victories for the environmental movement in 2008. Their list is very much centered on the USA, but a victory for the environment anywhere is a victory for everyone everywhere.

5. Greenpeace Activists Acquitted in the UK

A jury in the UK acquitted six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage charges after they trespassed, scaled, and vandalized a 650-foot smokestack at the Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent. The defense argued that they were acting in defense of the planet and that the damage done by the coal plant’s daily 20,000 tons of carbon emissions will result in damage from climate change much worse than any graffiti. Unfortunate side-note: activists tried the same argument in the United States recently without success.

Dell is Carbon Neutral

- Adam Clare

Dell computers has achieved carbon neutrality as a company which will put pressure on other computer manufactures to do the same. Dell achieved this goal five months ahead of schedule. Greenpeace does a good job of tracking which electronics manufactures are kind to the environment and which are not at their guide to greener electronics.

How Dell Became Carbon Neutral
The big one is that they are now completely carbon neutral when it comes to their energy use, and 5 months ahead of schedule to boot! They even did things in the right order. First, they started with efficiency measures in their operations around the world, then they purchased green power (which can sometimes be limited by local supply, Dane Parker, Dell’s director of global environmental health and safety programs, told us on the phone yesterday), and then purchased verified emission reductions and renewable energy certificates for the rest.

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