Kleenex, one of the most popular brands of tissue products in the world, contributes to the destruction of ancient forests. Its manufacturer, the Kimberly-Clark corporation, has been unwilling to improve its practices, continuing to rely on paper and pulp made from clearcut ancient forest including Canada’s Boreal forest. Kimberly-Clark clears these ancient forests, essential in fighting climate change and providing home to wildlife like caribou, wolves, eagles and bears,into products that are flushed down the toilet or thrown away.

Kimberly-Clark is the largest tissue product company in the world. It manufacturers the popular Kleenex brand of tissue products, which is sold in several formats – toilet paper, facial tissue and napkins. Kimberly-Clark produces 3.7 million tonnes (4.08 million tons) of tissue products annually and generates net sales of $14.3 billion US. The company has offices, factories and mills in 38 countries, and its products are sold in 150 countries. Kimberly-Clark also produces a line of commercial toilet paper and paper towels that are sold to institutions like universities, high schools, governments and businesses.

As consumers and inhabitants of this planet, it is our duty to send a clear message to companies that disregard our natural treasures and destroy the very home in which they prosper.

Take Action! Don’t purchase Kimberly-Clark Kleenex products.

The Report Card

HP, Lenovo, and Dell haven’t fared too badly in some of Greenpeace’s previous e-waste reports, but it looks like three companies have fallen well short of the organization’s expectations this time around, with each getting called out for failing to live up to their promises. Specifically, all three had said that they would eliminate vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in their products by the end of this year, but they’ve now apparently told Greenpeace that they won’t be able to meet that timeline, and only Lenovo has come forward set a new deadline (the end of 2010). The big winner, on the other hand, is Philips, which has jumped from 15th place to 4th as a result of some new recycling initiatives, prompted at least in part by public pressure. And, as you can see above, Nintendo is once again dead last, although we’re pretty sure that’s simply a result of sheer mass at this point.

What a shame. If Apple is able to move their entire laptop line to a sustainable and environmentally friendly model, why can’t these companies? Let’s put the pressure on!

Dell has just recently launched their new line of compact mini-PCs. It is basically a desktop made from laptop components enclosed in a stylishly attractive case that rivals the Apple Mac Mini.

I’ll be making a personal review of this computer later on. For now, check out the first unboxing video on YouTube.

[see it on YouTube]

This is an unboxing and first impressions video of the Dell Studio Hybrid, a desktop PC running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. Configured with an Intel Core 2 Duo T2390 (1.86 Ghz) CPU, 3 GB of DDR2 RAM, a 250 GB 5400 RPM hard drive, an 8x slot-loading DVD burner, and an Intel X3100 GPU. The colour is “Ruby”.