Tina Robinson, dressed like a yellow Kleenex box with green polka-dots and the word "Kleercut" in black scroll, tried to get passersby to sign a petition Thursday during a demonstration held by Eco-Action.
The petition urges the Office of Physical Plant to switch to an environmentally friendly supplier for Penn State's toiletries as the deadline for renewing Penn State's contract with Kimberly-Clark, a tissue and personal care company, approaches in 2009, said Robinson, Eco-Action public relations officer.
The petition was part of the Save the Boreal Forest Education Demonstration held in front of the library steps Thursday afternoon. The demonstration was held as part of the Kleercut National Week of Action. Kleercut is a Greenpeace campaign that targets Kimberly-Clark for its unsustainable forestry practices, said Jane Dahms, Eco-Action treasurer and campaign.
A representative from Kimberly-Clark was unable to be reached by press time, however, a message from Tom Falk, Kimberly-Clark CEO and chairman, was available on Kimberly-Clark's Web site.
"We recognize that only companies that build sustainability into the way they do business will have enduring success. Our business relies on natural resources such as wood fiber, energy and water. It is clearly in our best interest to design products and manufacturing processes that conserve these resources and secure their availability for the future."
Dahms considers Kimberly-Clark harmful because of its practice of clear-cutting ancient forests to make their products, she said.
"We're hoping to get a commitment from the physical plant that they'll find a green supplier and diversify the suppliers. Instead of having one supplier, we'd rather have several green suppliers," Dahms (junior-visual arts) said.
Kimberly-Clark gets most of its fiber from the Boreal forest and coastal temperate rainforest in North America, which are some of the last remaining ancient forests in the world, Robinson said.
"They are the last old growth forests. They are not just important for wildlife and species, but it's also important for the indigenous people that make their living off the trees. With global climate change, they're the largest carbon reservoirs. By cutting them down, it is contributing to climate change at a greater rate," Robinson said.
Demonstrators were dressed up like Kleenex boxes because Kleenex is considered to be one of Kimberly-Clark's most recognizable products. They also made a replica of the northern part of the world to show where the Boreal forest is and how large it is, Robinson said.
While some ignored the students trying to get signatures, others were enthusiastic to be part of the petition.
"I think environmental conservation is very important to our society and the future of our world. I think a lot of times we don't think about our actions and our waste, and that can be detrimental," Marc Fisher (senior-international politics and East Asian studies) said. "I think we need to be more mindful of our actions and our waste."
