Greenpeace, WWF, Kimberly-Clark, SCA, IKEA and other sustainability experts at Tissue World Sustainability Summit in Miami on March 19-21.
Tissue is based on a F-E-W (fibers, energy, water) resources.
Tissue paper products like bathroom and facial tissue, napkins and kitchen towels are part of an $80 billion global business which fundamentally uses three basic resources: Fibers, Energy and Water, appropriately abbreviated as F-E-W.
Wood fibers are by far the most important material in tissue making, accounting for around 60% of costs. Today, most of the fibers come from very responsible sources, 50% originating as primary fibers in very well-managed sustainable forests, plantations, and tree farms, and the other 50% from secondary fiber recycled from recovered paper. Water is another major natural resource used in making the tissue. The amount used and the quality of water discharged could be controversial issues from sustainability perspectives. The last important resource is the energy, which can be more or less sustainable depending on the source.
Environmental Sustainability issues like these are rapidly rising on the radar screen for consumers and NGOs, as well as retailers, distributors and manufacturers. The fact is that tissue products are mostly responsibly produced, but the raw material inputs can sometimes be controversial.
The first-ever Tissue Sustainability Summit at Tissue World Miami on March 20 in Miami Beach will discuss key questions about tissue making and sustainability, and will welcome sustainability-minded tissue professionals from manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.
Two respected sustainability advisors will lead the Summit
Five years ago Suhas Apte and Thomas Bergmark were, unbeknownst to each other, on opposite sides of a forest/wood fiber conflict that Greenpeace had catalyzed by attacking Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex brand for what it called destruction of old growth forests. Both have served as Vice Presidents of Sustainability, Thomas at IKEA and Suhas at K-C.
During the conflict that went from 2005 to 2009 Greenpeace came to IKEA and explained their concerns. IKEA, with its top-notch environmental profile, stopped buying K-C products for several years after explaining what it expected and promising to restart K-C business when the expectations where fulfilled. Suhas came in to his role around 2009 and since then K-C and Greenpeace have established a mutually respectable relationship. And IKEA restarted buying from K-C thanks to the collaboration it established with Greenpeace.
Now both gentlemen, who until now have never met, are in different roles as Sustainability Advisors to various groups. There are perhaps no two more-appropriate people on Earth that could be chosen to lead the first-ever Tissue Sustainability Summit.
Besides the Sustainability and Environmental topics, a wide variety of other, extremely pertinent tissue subjects will also be covered as part of the World's Largest Conference and Tradeshow for the Tissue Paper Products business. Here are a few of those topics:
-- The Market Balance between Big Brands and Private Labels. Why is Europe different?
-- New Innovations like NTT, ATMOS and ADT Tissue Making Technology
-- The Growing Global Trade and Imports in Tissue
-- New Products and Packaging Innovations
-- Changing Consumer Buying Habits and the Influence of E-Commerce.
-- and much more
