Protect the Forest, Protect our Kids’ Future

More than 90 Kimberly-Clark Taiwan employees and their families volunteer to keep our forests thriving

Kimberly-Clark Taiwan employees recently volunteered their time for a national forest-conservation service campaign organized by the National Forestry Bureau of Taiwan, to keep the country’s primitive forests alive and thriving. “I am so proud of being part of Kimberly-Clark Taiwan, where we get to live and breathe our corporate promise to lead the way in sustainability not only by producing the greenest Kleenex tissue products in the market, but also joining activities to protect the environment,” said Fiona Tsai, Kimberly-Clark Taiwan’s HR Director, who has not missed this annual green campaign since its launch four years ago.

A total of 92 Kimberly-Clark volunteers and their families, ages one to 74, devoted the first weekend of September to working together to pull out an invasive weed – whose Chinese name translates into “mile-a-minute” – which is threatening Taiwan’s native ecosystem. According to the Forest Bureau, this “forest killer” arrived from overseas around a decade ago and poses a serious threat to primitive forests island-wide. The most effective way to control its spread is to manually uproot the weeds before they blossom in early autumn.

Riko Handoko, Managing Director of Kimberly-Clark Taiwan, said “As the biggest tissue brand in the market, Kleenex is recognized by millions of local consumers as more than just having the best quality, but it has earned a reputation as being visionary in terms of sustainability among multiple stakeholders.”

Riko continued, “In 2011, Kleenex was the first and only one tissue brand in Taiwan to receive Forest Stewardship Council (or FSC) certification – the world’s most widely recognized sustainable forestry certification – for its full product portfolio. As part of our corporate social responsibility efforts, Kimberly-Clark Taiwan has also made a lot of effort to promote forest conservation education on school campuses and to encourage employee volunteering to keep our forests green.”

With four years of service under its belt, Kimberly-Clark Taiwan was also recognized as the largest corporate volunteer group by the Forest Bureau. “As a government body, we truly appreciate Kimberly-Clark Taiwan’s efforts and contributions to raise sustainability awareness among its employees and taking actions to preserving our cherished forest environment,” said How-Jen Lin, Director of Luodong Forest District Office of Forest Bureau.

 After hours of hard work under the sun, K-C Taiwan volunteers proudly showcased their “results” – many piles of mile-a-minute weeds. By uprooting these forest killers, the primitive forests can continue to get the fresh air, water and nutrients they need to thrive.

In addition to the annual volunteer service campaign, Kimberly-Clark Taiwan has partnered with the Chinese Society for Environmental Education (CSEE), a renowned local environmental protection non-profit organization, to design a forest conservation learning program, Green Up for a Better Future, and bring the courses to 5th and6th graders starting from 2014. So far close to 3,000 kids have enrolled in the program and learned lessons including the indispensable relationship between forests and human beings, the importance of protecting forest resources through greener consumption, what the FSC logo is and why the products that carry this logo can help protect the forest.