H1. General accounting principles

Reporting principles

The environmental and social data reported pertains to the 2017 calendar year. The figures included comply with relevant reporting and consolidation principles in accordance with the principles in the financial statements. Essity uses the global Greenhouse Gas Protocol standard for measuring, managing and reporting carbon dioxide data. The figures cover the Essity Group’s wholly owned subsidiaries and subsidiaries in which Essity owns at least 50% of the company. If Essity’s ownership of a company is 50% or more, the entire company is included.

An exception is made in the case of the Chinese company Vinda, in which Essity owns 51.4% of the votes and which was consolidated as a subsidiary in 2014. The data from Vinda includes the number of employees and some health and safety and environmental data. Vinda publishes an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report, which is available at www.vinda.com.

Some social data from joint ventures is not included. Note H2 Code of Conduct data is one example, due to the fact that Essity and its joint ventures do not share a common code. Aside from total employee figures and the personnel turnover rate in Note H3, information from joint-venture companies is not reported. The Colombian Familia Group is Essity’s largest joint-venture company (refer to Note F1). The Familia Group reports in accordance with the GRI G4 guidelines. For more information, visit www.grupofamilia.com.co.

Newly acquired businesses are integrated when they have been part of the Group for one calendar year. The historic environmental and social data of newly acquired units is included to the greatest possible extent in order to increase comparability (also refer to the section on comparability below). The data from divested units is excluded in its entirety as of the divestment date. Historic data for discontinued units is retained. Essity completed the acquisition of BSN medical in April 2017. This report includes health and safety data and some social data from BSN medical. BSN medical’s operations consume less than 1% of the resources used by Essity.

A main site is a production facility that is wholly owned by Essity and that has 100 or more employees.

Data collection

Data provided in the report is compiled through various systems, primarily the Group’s financial consolidation system, Resource Management System (RMS) and Essity’s system for collection of social data. General tables for environmental and social data can be found in the non-financial multi-year summary on pages in the chapter Environmental data.

Environmental data

The RMS encompasses more than 58 production sites, covering virtually the entire company’s environmental impact and resource utilization from production. It includes data from manufacturing operations but not from corporate staffs, offices or joint ventures. Data from stand-alone tissue converting sites is included in the main mother reel supplying site.

Each unit reports the following data to the system:

  • raw material consumption
  • incoming and outgoing shipments
  • production volumes
  • energy consumption broken down by hydro-electric power, co-generation and power from the grid
  • fuel consumption broken down by biofuels, fossil fuels and electric boilers
  • air emissions, including data on fossil and biogenic carbon dioxide
  • water emissions
  • solid waste

The data is reported both internally and externally at the mill level, business unit level and for the Group as a whole.

Conversion factors used:

  • Emissions of greenhouse gases from incineration are calculated using emission factors for the fuel’s thermal value. Source: IPCC Guidelines 2006.
  • Emissions of greenhouse gases from purchased electricity are calculated using the country’s emission factor published by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Social, Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) and Human Resource (HR) data

Data is provided from different internal systems and tools depending on the nature of the data. HR data resides in Essity’ s HR system and other qualitative data is collected in Essity’s database for social data.

Comparability

As this is Essity’s first report, figures used for the preceding year are available in previous publications of SCA’s Sustainability Reports. This information is adjusted to make Essity’s figures comparable. This applies for example to most of the GRI indicators and data encompassed by Essity’s sustainability targets, such as CO2 and health and safety. These figures are reported in parenthesis.

The results of the Group’s CO2 target and water target are adjusted each year in relation to production levels. Other environmental data is reported in absolute figures.

GRI reporting

This is the first year that Essity has published an integrated Annual and Sustainability Report and has reported sustainability information in line with Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) guidelines according to GRI Reporting Standards: Core. The Report has been structured in accordance with GRI principles, meaning that the content is determined by the issues that are most material to Essity and its stakeholders, and that the content provides a complete overview of the operations. Essity reports in accordance with all GRI indicators and on a level identified as material. Essity’s 21 subject areas in the materiality analysis are matched against GRI indicators, and they form the selection of the indicators that Essity presents in this report. In addition, Essity reports a number of general indicators according to GRI Standards: Comprehensive option as we believe this may simplify the information in the report. Any omissions or incomplete data are commented on directly in the GRI index. The entire report has been reviewed by EY. The report is aimed at specialist audiences with an interest in sustainability performance, including analysts, investors and NGOs. More detailed information about Essity’s work on environmental and social issues is available at www.essity.com.

The UN Guiding principles

Essity uses the reporting framework for the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and has reported on the overarching aspects contained in the framework.