(Credit: Kimberly Clark)In 2021, Kimberly-Clark achieved nearly a 41% reduction in operational emissions (Scope 1 and 2) versus its 2015 base year, according to its annual report on sustainability.
Consistent with the world's enhanced climate action commitments coming out of COP26, the company made progress against targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) for reducing Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and Scope 3 emissions by 20% – all by 2030.
For Scope 3 GHG emissions, Kimberly-Clark achieved a 6.3% GHG emissions reduction from a 2015 base year, with a focus on purchased goods and services and end-of-life treatment of sold products.
The company made continued progress toward its goal of sourcing 90% of tissue fiber from environmentally preferred fiber sources. In 2021, Kimberly-Clark achieved 87% environmentally preferred fiber use globally, primarily by increasing its procurement of virgin wood fiber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) (63%) as well as recycled fiber (24%) for tissue products.
Kimberly-Clark continued its work to explore more sustainable, commercially viable and scalable alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics. In 2021, the company doubled the percentage of recycled content in our plastics packaging, and it further increased the amount of packaging globally that is reusable, recyclable, or compostable to nearly 84%, as it strives for 100% by 2025, the report says.
In 2021, Kimberly-Clark achieved a 34% reduction of water consumption in water-stressed regions against its 2015 baseline, of which 1.4% occurred in the last year, driven by what the company calls a “strategic approach to water management.”
