Contribute to a sustainable and circular society

Essity’s objective is to develop products and solutions that contribute toward a sustainable and circular society. Circularity is a business model that involves striving to reduce resource consumption in the design of products and services and in connection with production and consumption, and to offer efficient reuse, recycling or composting of our products, which reduces consumer waste.

Working with a circular economy means we must constantly challenge ourselves and how we work with innovation and adapt our business models to support our objective.

Circular opportunities

Our product portfolio largely comprises of disposable products. In order to contribute to a sustainable and circular society, we are working to find business models that include the efficient collection of used products and a technology that separates the different materials used in the products in a way that creates new, attractive, recycled materials. With regards to paper recycling, the infrastructure is already in place in most of the countries where Essity operates. In 2017, we used 43% of recovered fiber in our production of tissue.

We are working together with other companies to achieve our objectives. We are a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for Circular Economy (CE100), which supports companies and organizations that develop circular solutions. This membership offers, in addition to networking with other companies and sectors, also knowledge that leads to new perspectives toward our products and services.

Efficiency improvements in production

Essity continuously works to improve resource efficiency in the operations, for example through the Energy Savings and Efficiency (ESAVE) program, which since 2010 has resulted in a 9.4% reduction in energy used per ton of product produced, equivalent to a reduction in energy consumption by 1.2 TWh. In 2017, ESAVE projects were implemented resulting in a 0.4% reduction in energy used per ton of product produced. We also work with MSAVE, which is a similar program for raw materials aiming to optimize costs while minimizing environmental impact and waste from the raw materials.

Essity has a goal to recycle and use 100% of waste and bi-products from production. 62% is currently recycled.

Effective products for our customers

We also strive to deliver effective products and services that allow our customers to reduce their consumption. Under the Tork brand, we are continuously working with new and effective dispensers. These include Tork Xpressnap®, Tork SmartOne® and the latest innovation, Tork PeakServe®. Another example is TENA Solutions, which is a service where we can help nursing homes to optimize their incontinence care through an extensive analysis of operations. The result is improved well-being for care recipients, less resource consumption and lower total cost.