ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

The climate emergency has prompted many companies to adopt new sustainability goals. But Essity’s own commitment to the environment dates back nearly 100 years – and it is this ingrained culture that helped the company to win the European Cleaning & Hygiene Award for Sustainability – Best Practice.

Pioneering the world’s first recycling service for paper hand towels is an impressive boast for any company. So is launching a ground-breaking bio-based cleaning cloth for industrial use.  But Essity won the European Cleaning & Hygiene Award for Sustainability – Best Practice for neither of these breakthroughs, says sustainability communications director Renee Remijnse.

“I hope we won it for two reasons,” she said. “One, for our integrated and long-standing company policy and commitment to sustainability. And two, for our 360 degree approach, which means we look at the complete picture rather than at a single environmentally-friendly benefit.”

Sustainability is at the heart of Essity and its Tork professional hygiene brand, she says. “From the origins of our company in 1929 we have been at the forefront of developing and incorporating a sustainable way of working, and we have a long history of sustainable forest management as SCA,” she said.

In 1992 the company became one of the first in Europe to begin integrating Life Cycle Analysis into its product development. This means Essity considers each stage of a development from raw materials sourcing to production, choice of manufacturing sites and waste disposal and recycling.
In 2007 the company’s global parent SCA was ranked the second most environmentally-friendly company in the world by Ethical Investment Research Services.

“We now have new commitments on topics such as carbon, waste and plastics and we have earned recognition from leading industry standards bodies,” said Remijnse. “Our ambition is to ensure 50 per cent of our innovations offer social or environmental improvements.”

Two of the company’s recent initiatives are Tork Heavy-Duty Cleaning Cloth 99% Biobased and Tork PaperCircle. The cloth is designed for industrial environments and is made from 99 per cent plant-based fibres that have been sustainably sourced.

Tork PaperCircle – described as the world’s first recycling service for paper towels – is said to enable businesses to reduce their environmental footprint for paper towels by 40 per cent. Used towels are collected from the customer’s site and taken to local recycling centres where they are turned into other tissue products.

Essity chose not to focus on either of these initiatives in its entry to the European Cleaning & Hygiene Awards. “We wanted to inspire the industry to look beyond a single proof-point,” said Remijnse. “So we showcased our three main sustainability focus points: More from less, Well-being and Circularity.”

Essity uses compressed packaging as standard on many of its products to help it achieve its “more from less” goals. Tork dispensers are designed to naturally reduce product consumption and the company wants 100 per cent of its packaging to be made from recyclable materials by 2025. Around 90 per cent is currently derived from renewable resources.

It is also committed to reaching net zero by 2050 at the latest. “We work with global organisations such as the UN and Unicef to improve sustainability and well-being for everyone on a global level,” she said. “We also team up with local groups and organisations to make an impact on a country-by-country level. We are proud of the way in which our employees support our sustainability goals.”

The company aims to improve the cleaner’s wellbeing by creating dispensers that are quick to refill and by introducing Tork EasyHandling packaging on 68 per cent of its products. This has been designed to be easy to open, carry and refill. Its Tork Vision Cleaning data-driven cleaning software helps cleaners work more efficiently and improves job satisfaction.

And besides Tork PaperCircle, Essity’s circularity goals include the recycling of paper cups for Starbucks Netherlands and McDonalds in Germany into Tork toilet tissue, plus a move to integrate renewable wheat straw into Tork products made at the company’s Mannheim mill.

The European Cleaning & Hygiene Awards are important to Essity, says Remijnse. “They represent the value the cleaning industry places on us and our products and services, and an award like this shows us we are on the right track. And on a broader scale, this important award can inspire other companies to invest more heavily in sustainability because it demonstrates that it will create opportunities in the long run.”

www.essity.com