Wanna see the kleercut campaign in action? Check out Flickr,  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/kimberlyclark/

Here's a coming attraction . . .

Have you been noticing Kimberly-Clark products in public bathrooms at restaurants, stores, movie theaters, etc? Wondering what to do about these sightings? Why not document them? I’ve mentioned this aspect of the K-C campaign before, but now that many of you are on some kind of school break, well, now’s a perfect time to actually do it!
This winter break, become a Kimberly-Clark-PI (K-C PI) and snoop in bathrooms around the world. K-C PIs are on the lookout for forest destroyers, namely (of course) Kimberly-Clark products. You can be a KC-PI by tracking and exposing businesses, chains, corporations, and other public and private institutions that are financially supporting K-C.
    Sound engaging? A good use of your time? Here are the steps:

1) Find the Forest Crime
Keep your eyes peeled for businesses and institutions using K-C brands, including Kleenex brands (in Canada) as well as Scott, Viva, and Cottonelle (in the USA).

2) Record the Forest Crime
Snap photos and send in the contact information for any business or institution that you discover is using K-C brands of tissue products. We’re talking national chains, not your mom-and-pop businesses (but those, of course, you should get to join the Forest Friendly 500).

3) Submit your evidence (so many ways!)
Online: www.kleercut.net/en/evidence
Email:  ickc@kleercut.net,
Fax: (Canada) (416) 597-8422 or (USA) (415) 255-9201
Mail:
(Canada)
Kimberly-Clark Private Eye
Greenpeace Canada
250 Dundas St. West, Suite 605
Toronto Ontario, Canada
M5T 2Z5
Or
(USA)
Kimberly-Clark Private Eye
Greenpeace USA
75 Arkansas St.
San Francisco CA, Canada
94107

4) Expose the Forest Crime
Greenpeace will use this information to track and target companies and chains that are using K-C products. We will be pushing them to break their contracts with K-C and stop purchasing tissue products made of ancient forests.

That’s all I’ve got for now- have a great holiday, and see you in the new year!

    I’ve been looking at all these blogs and besides these weird spammy ones (why are they posting on the Greenpeace site? Is nothing sacred?), there’s also a somewhat common theme. All over the place, it’s “I want to help, what can I do to help?” Or, “The earth’s a mess, what can be done?” Or, “How do I make a difference?” You all want to DO something.
    The good news is-- whether you realize it or not-- you people are making a difference.  Every time you decide not to buy a box of Kleenex, you’re sending a message to Kimberly-Clark; every time you tell your friends or relatives about the Kleercut campaign, you’re spreading the word and helping to make a change. Every time you join cyber activists around the world and take a cyberaction, you’re making your environmental views known; every time you forward that cyber action on to your friends . . . well, you get the idea. Keep up the great work. You’re already involved; you’re already doing stuff.
    Want to do even more? Here are some thoughts about getting more involved in the new year:
1) Join the Ancient Forest Defenders list to get the latest news on the Kleercut campaign (enter your email in the box on the right side of http://kleercut.net/en/)
2) Have a website? Link to the Kleercut site with a banner: http://kleercut.net/en/banners
3) And-- I know I've already suggested these, but they're such good opportunities, I just can't help myslef!--  here are 2 just for the students:
    * Join the student network, http://members.greenpeace.org/students/. It’s a great support system for students interested in working on campaigns at their school.
    * Apply to the Greenpeace Organizing Term (GOT). Go here: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/getinvolved/greenpeace-organizing-term for more information about the term. (Unfortunately, the spring semester deadline has past, but you can start thinking about your application for the fall!) After you read all about the Term, I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to you that some of the most active student network campuses are the ones that have GOT alumni.  

 

Hey, remember Kyle, who's working on the K-C campaign? Well check out what he just did: 

Rice University Removes Kleenex Products Due To Environmentally Destructive Forest Policies

It’s the beginning of the end of the year. A perfect time for snow (or rain here), holiday movies, hats, scarves, shopping, and . . . yessss—the end of the year best of list! Because I don’t like to be left out (see blog about holiday gifts), I’ve compiled a best of list too. Here it is, a collection of what we’ve learned, taken from my interviews with people working on the K-C campaign at their school. We have advice from Riley, American University’s Environmental Coordinator, tips from Kyle, suggestions from Alison and Jonathan at Skidmore, and hints from Heather and David at the University of Chicago. I hope this “Holiday Compilation” (ok, I am really going too far) will inspire you to start your own K-C campaign (or any environmental campaign) in the new year.

Tip #1:
Pick strategic targets for your campaign.
Riley Neugebauer, American University’s (AU) Environmental Coordinator councils what worked really well in the AU campaign was finding a target who had purchasing power over the campus, but who wasn’t the president or a major senior level administrator. Riley points out that at AU “there was no way we could go straight to the President and have him sign this letter regarding K-C. Everything that you try to push through at that level of leadership takes months, years, to succeed.” So AU decided to target the Director in Facilities Management. At AU, this person manages the contracts with the Housekeeping services, so he has some amount of control over AU’s paper vendors and contracts. And viola, AU had the first K-C off Campus letter of the K-C campaign!

Tip #2:
Work with your administration.
Many interviewees mentioned how important working with their administration was for their campaign.
Kyle notes that on his campus, “Everything we do [in the K-C campaign] that involves the administration is through our campus Sustainability Planner. He’s the best resource we could ask for. Alison from Skidmore agrees. “Talking to the administrators has been the most effective [tactic] so far. They have been very supportive of our efforts and our conversations with them have lead to them doing more research by themselves and coming back to us for more discussion.” Riley concurs. She believes campus activists shouldn’t get into the mindset that “every administrator and every person in power [on their campuses] is evil.” Instead, students should “identify champions within the administration to help them, and act as a liaison between students and other administrators.” This can be the sustainability coordinator, but it can also be interested staff.

Tip #3:
Engage others (students, the general public) in unusual, imaginative ways to spread the word about the campaign and to keep up interest in the campaign.
Kyle began a Facebook group for the campaign at his school. This helps to spread the campaign by word-of-mouth (or click-of-the-mouse?). At the University of Chicago, Heather and David did street theater (their version of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax—the bad guy is a tissue box). Additionally, Heather and David are planning creative ways to get their message across to a K-C board member who they haven’t been able to engage by phone. Last time we talked, they were looking into bike messengers to drop off a package of signed K-C petitions at her office as well as a singing telegram. As David aptly put it, “To deal with being ignored, we’ve got to make it impossible to be ignored.”

Tip #4:
Remember your power as students!
Straight from Riley: “Institutions are there for students. Rather than feel that your institution owes you the right to park wherever you want, or that it should use plenty of pesticides so the grass is green, you should feel it is your right to make it make changes which are better for our health, for our planet, and for the future economy in dealing with real issues like climate change, a lack of corporate social responsibility, poor forest management, and the loss of biodiversity.”

I try to buy used or make all my Christmas and Hanukah presents (yes, I get to celebrate both; I’m lucky). Sometimes this works great—a sequined sweater from Thrift Town for a best friend who’s stuck in the 80’s (or some other place/time), a collaged box, a handmade frame, a really beautiful old copy of a favorite book for a bibliophile friend. Sometimes, this gift giving technique doesn’t work so well. Hanukahs and Christmases past reveal a few mistakes—“Umm, but Grandma, I thought you would love this ‘70s collared shirt and bowling bag. They’re so you.”
When I can’t make or buy used gifts for these family members, I turn to green gift options. After all, environmentally friendly presents are a great way to remind people to be more conscious of the earth in the coming year, as well as a great way to help people get turned on to products they might not have thought to buy on their own. I’ve listed a few below (some of these, especially the compact fluorescent bulbs, I’ve personally had a lot of success with) , but if you have any other ideas, why not post a comment below?

- A cloth handkerchief— A great way of getting people into the K-C campaign! (If you want a special Kleercut hankie, go to http://kleercut.net/en/, and click the link for the Kleercut handkerchiefs.)
- Recycled paper notebooks
- Compact fluorescent bulbs—Conventional light bulbs waste 85 percent of their energy in heat; compact fluorescent bulbs will save your giftees energy and money on their electric bill.
- A power strip—I know this sounds a little weird, but think about it—energy is used even when appliances are plugged in to sockets (phantom energy), though the appliances may be turned off. A power strip lets you easily eliminate phantom energy.
- Organic clothing—more expensive, but really nice . . .
- Organic foods—Yum.
- A membership to an environmental group—May I suggest Greenpeace?

Here in San Francisco it’s 80 degrees out and sunny, but nonetheless it’s that time of year again. The time of year when nothing’s exempt from corny holiday packaging and for godsake, I’m wearing my winter coat as it’s DECEMBER so I should be wearing it, after all people have Christmas wreaths and trees up already.  If I don’t get slapped with jury duty this week, you can expect some festival holiday blogs from me (as I said, corny holiday packaging everywhere! How can I help myself?). Yep, you can look forward to a holiday gift guide as well as some New Year’s resolutions help. So, see you soon (I hope!).