Paper Companies Are Greener Than Average, Study Indicates

Contrary to their popular image as despoilers of the forest, major paper companies get high marks for being green in a recent ranking of large U.S. companies.

All six forest-products companies in Newsweek's "Green Rankings 2010" scored in the top 35%. The magazine ranked the nation's 500 largest publicly traded companies on their environmental impact, "green policies", and reputation.

Leading the way was Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark, ranked #76 based on a score of 80.65 out of a possible 100 despite a poor showing in the environmental impact category.

Greenpeace ended its Klearcut campaign against the company last year when it agreed to increase its usage of certified and recycled pulp. Kimberly Clark calls itself a consumer-products company, but with its purchase and processing of more than 3 million tons of pulp annually, it certainly fits into the forest-products industry.

Other forest-products companies ranked by Newsweek, along with their scores, were Domtar (#95, 79.00), Sonoco Products (#125, 76.92), International Paper (#155, 75.27), MeadWestvaco (#161, 74.89), and Weyerhaeuser (#172, 74.12).

IP made the biggest upward move from last year's inaugural ranking, jumping from #344, while Kimberly-Clark improved from #120. Domtar wasn't in last year's survey (probably because it was then classified as Canadian), while the other three slipped slightly in the rankings.

Other articles that challenge common conceptions about forestry and the forest-products industry include:

• An Environmentalist's Defense of Clearcut Logging 
• Why Planting Trees Is Not Necessarily Green 
• Condoms to the Rescue, and 5 Other Novel Ideas for Saving the Forests 
• Cutting some trees but saving the forest 

Marcal Challenges the Green-ness of Greenpeace

A journalist friend notes that an article headlined "Dog Bites Man" isn't much of a story, but that "Man Bites Dog" is big news.

Here's a true man-bites-dog story: A paper company is accusing Greenpeace of selling out by setting its standards for eco-friendly paper too low and for backing off on its efforts to protect Canada's boreal forest. This is the same Greenpeace that has used various tactics to embarrass such companies as Victoria's Secret, Sears, and AbitibiBowater over logging in the boreal.

Marcal Paper's criticism of Greenpeace comes barely a week after members of the environmental group were arrested while blocking the entrance to Quebec's Natural Resources Department to protest boreal logging.

The New Jersey-based maker of 100%-recycled toilet paper was commenting on Greenpeace's announcement Thursday that it was ending its "Kleercut" campaign against Kimberly-Clark. Greenpeace agreed to a truce because the maker of Kleenex promised that, by the end of 2011, at least 40% of its tissue fiber will be either recycled or FSC certified.

"Since when is 40 percent a passing grade?" Tim Spring, Marcal CEO, said in a statement issued yesterday. "While I understand the negotiating process, Greenpeace needs to rethink these standards. There is no excuse to make paper from anything but 100 percent recycled fiber, especially when you consider that paper takes up a quarter of our landfill space today."

"It is unnecessary to kill even a single additional tree to manufacture toilet paper, facial tissue, napkins or paper towels," Marcal's statement says.

So what happens next? Here's a hint from Greenpeace's Web site: "Did you know that K-C competitors Georgia Pacific and Procter & Gamble currently have policies that fail to protect the world’s forests?"