Manufacturing

Fiber sourcing

Fiber sourcing target

Essity has a target for sourcing of fresh fiber. The target states that all fresh wood fiber-based raw material in our products will be FSC® or PEFC™ certified, or fulfill the FSC’s standard for Controlled Wood. Essity endeavors to continuously increase its share of FSC-certified fiber. The target includes all deliveries of fresh wood fiber (timber, pulp, packaging, mother reels and articles supplied by third parties) to Essity’s production sites.

A global fiber database

Essity has a global fiber sourcing policy in place and a shared business system – the Global Fiber Database – for the assessment and purchase of fiber in compliance with Essity’s forest management policies. The database includes all of the Group’s pulp, recovered fiber and alternative fiber suppliers. It provides the purchasing function, environmental department, R&D department and production facilities with fast and easy access to important information about suppliers: region of supply, wood species, pulp specifications and bleaching methods.

The information also includes the suppliers’ product certification status: FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council), PEFC™ (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification), Controlled Wood, ecolabels and ISO 9000. As a result, Essity can ensure traceability, the R&D department can check the availability of a certain raw material and the mills can show customers exactly what has been purchased. The database is continually updated to support Essity’s global operations.

Supplier verification

Essity requires fiber pulp suppliers to guarantee that they have robust systems and documented procedures in place to ensure traceability and compliance throughout the supply chain.

All fiber pulp suppliers are Chain of Custody certified according to the FSC. Essity’s fresh wood based fiber sourcing policy includes a step-by-step process to support suppliers in their transition to third party certification.

Climate and energy

Science-based carbon target

Essity has undertaken to develop a science-based target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the company. This will be established in 2018 and we expect that investments and extensive actions will be required to achieve the target.

Reduction targets are considered science-based if they are in line with what is needed in order to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, as agreed by world leaders at the UN climate change conference (COP 21) in Paris in 2015. The Science Based Targets initiative is a partnership between CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project), the UN Global Compact, the WRI (World Resources Institute) and the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). Science Based Targets helps companies determine which emission reductions they need to achieve in order to prevent the worst impact of climate change.

ESAVE

Since 2003, the ESAVE energy-efficiency program has contributed to energy savings and improved efficiency in all operative business units.

Improved energy efficiency is an integral part of daily life at Essity. ESAVE is a program that encompasses investments in energy-efficient technical solutions, the involvement of employees in daily improvement activities and a general change in attitude toward the use of energy at Essity. Knowledge sharing is leveraged across the Group through training and various networks, and ESAVE is part of several onboarding programs for young engineers. Best practices are shared digitally, in real time, to achieve energy-efficiency excellence by learning from others. Essity also cooperates with external stakeholders, such as machinery suppliers, to ensure continued leadership in energy efficiency and continuous improvements. All new equipment is energy efficient by design and ESAVE is part of the planning criteria.

A typical ESAVE project could involve reducing electricity consumption by improving or replacing pumps, compressors, fans or lighting, or by optimizing thermal drying processes. Experiences are documented and provide effective support for future improvement efforts.

MSAVE

Essity has also introduced a material savings program, MSAVE, using the same philosophy and methodology as ESAVE. The program aims to achieve the best cost while minimizing the environmental impact from raw materials and waste. Best practice is shared across the sites worldwide.

MSAVE initiatives can focus on optimizing the tissue machine fiber mix and chemical dosage scheme, reducing the amount of packaging materials, reusing the tissue waste in our processes or converting waste into by-products to be used as raw materials in other industries.

Water

Water usage treatment

Essity works continuously to enhance its effluent treatment and thus the quality of the effluent water discharged from its plants. Mechanical treatment removes suspended solids, sand and particles, while biological treatment extracts dissolved solids and organic impurities that affect biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

Waste management

Essity follows a life cycle approach that includes purchasing, production, use and waste management. This means we use life cycle assessments (LCAs) to identify resource-efficient solutions and minimize waste, all the way from the product design stage to manufacturing and after use.

Production waste target

We adopted a production waste target in 2016: “All solid production waste will be recovered by 2030.”

Products and solutions

Essity continuously works to develop product designs and materials. Redu-cing the environmental impact of products throughout the product cycle, including the post-user phase, is part of Essity’s innovation process. We accomplish this by working to continuously make more efficient use of our resources and by developing products designed to reduce consumption and thereby waste.

Post-consumer and customer waste

Tissue products comprise renewable fibers that contribute to renewable energy and combustion. Thanks to their biodegradability, they are well suited to composting and digestions. Compostability is based on tests according to existing composting standards. We have also initiated a pilot project for the recycling of used paper hand towels.

For our products in the Personal Care business area, energy recovery through combustion is a good alternative to landfill. There is currently no infrastructure and no established business models for collecting and recycling used products. We are working proactively with external partners to assess other alternatives for recycling.