
Why is sustainability important to you?
As a company with a heritage in Swedish forestry, respect for nature and people is in our DNA and culture. We have always felt a clear responsibility as a market leader to set an example of doing business in a sustainable way. Essity has integrated sustainability for many years - as our mission is to sustainably develop, produce, market and sell valueadded products and services within hygiene and health. But sustainability must be integrated into all parts of a business, and all parts of a product to have a positive impact on the planet, people and profit. We work with sustainability throughout our business, from risk reduction to sustainable innovation and from responsible sourcing to value creation. For our Tork branded products we focus on "sustainable hygiene management" with the opportunity to design products and services that fit into a circular society, meet customers' hygiene needs and support their business at the same time.
Moreover, society is changing quickly towards living more sustainable. To remain relevant for our customers we listen to them and will need to be aware of these changes.
Tell us about the initiatives your company takes towards sustainability.
Since 1992, Essity has developed many Tork hygiene products and services that reduce the environmental impact in different phases of the life cycle: raw material, production process, transport and waste disposal. Our strength has always been to put words into action. From being one of the first companies to have approved science-based targets to launching the worlds’ first recycling service for hand towels. And from introducing several systems with certified claims on consumption reduction to being one of few companies to commit to net zero emissions by 2050.
Next to our own strategy, we also are involved with global sustainability movements as a partner of the United Nations Foundation since 2016, our membership of The Ellen MacArthur Foundation since 2010 that works on accelerating the transition to a circular economy and many more initiatives with Unicef and other NGO’s working on sustainability for people and planet.
Tell us about your products/ technologies that contribute towards a sustainable future and how.
All Tork products have a sustainable aspect- from the use of FSC or PEFC certified fibers to the globally recognized ecolabels and from ergonomic packaging to dispensers that are certified for ‘Easy to use’. Some specific examples of recent innovations are the Tork Clarity Foam Soap that reduces water consumption and consists of 99 percent natural ingredients. We also have Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towels that are compressed to 50 percent which reduces transport volumes. Or Tork Coreless Toilet Paper, reducing both waste and raw material use.
But also important in the life cycle thinking is to use products that reduce the consumption, and therefore the waste and need for resources. We have several systems for toilet paper, soap, wiping and napkins that can reduce consumption up to 40% (Tork Smartone, Tork Reflex, Tork Xpressnap, Tork Peakserve and many more).
Tell us about your sustainable initiatives in pipeline for the future.
We have many exciting launches planned for 2023 that will reduce even more the impact on the planet and /or people. Focus will be on increasing the use of recycled plastics in our packaging and products, using more natural ingredients in soap and solutions that reduce the carbon footprint.