The environmental impact of sneezing could soon be cut in half, thanks to a major new commitment from Kimberley-Clark, the global company behind Kleenex tissues.

The company, which also manufactures Huggies nappies, Andrex loo roll, and Scott tissues, announced yesterday at the Rio +20 Earth Summit that it has set a new target to halve its use of wood fiber sourced from forests by 2025.

Suhas Apte, vice president for global sustainability for Kimberly-Clark, said that while the company had made impressive progress supporting sustainable forest initiatives it could reduce its environmental impact further by supporting the development of alternative fiber materials.

“We continue to strongly support sustainable forestry where those materials are needed, but at the same time we are aggressively exploring high-potential alternatives to the traditional fiber sources used in our industry, while maintaining the high-quality standards our customers and consumers have come to expect,” he said in a statement.

“In the long run, we hope that one day all of our fiber needs will be met from sources that collectively have maximum land use efficiencies, while minimising the impact on people and our planet.”

The company said that under the new goal it would aim to halve its use of forest wood fiber from 750,000 tonnes to 375,000 by 2025.

It added that a number of research programmes were already underway to identify the alternative materials that could be used to replace wood fibers.

For example, the recently launched Andrew Eco tissues in the UK, which contain 90 per cent recycled fiber and 10 per cent fast-growing bamboo, while the company is currently testing products that contain up to 20 per cent bamboo fiber and recently signed a development agreement with US biotech firm BooShoot to explore how bamboo could play a key role in the sector’s supply chain.

In addition, the company is also testing a number of products manufactured from heat straw and other waste fibers, while work is ongoing to increase the proportion of recycled materials in many products.

The new target was welcomed by green groups, who praised the company for stepping up its commitment to reducing its impact on global forests.

“Taking pressure off of natural forests is a key measure to helping the world’s remaining forests and curbing deforestation,” said Richard Brooks, Greenpeace forest campaign coordinator. “If done right, Kimberly-Clark’s innovative practices could be groundbreaking and potentially set a new high bar for other companies to meet.”