Contribute to a sustainable and circular society
Essity’s objective is to develop products and services for a sustainable and circular society. Circularity is a business model that involves striving to reduce resource consumption and an efficient recycling or composting of our hygiene and health products. This means we must include this in our innovation work and develop new business models that create new business opportunities for Essity.
Our ambition is that our environmental footprint will be reduced by 33% in 2030.
In December 2018, Essity’s expanded climate targets for carbon emissions were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. The initiative is a collaboration between for example CDP, the UN Global Compact and the WWF and includes a scientific method to ensure that companies’ targets for the reduction of carbon emissions are aligned with the global climate target set by the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. We are committed to reducing our climate impact linked to energy use and purchased electricity (Scope 1 and 2), and our indirect climate impact from material use, transportation and waste management, which includes emissions from suppliers and consumers (Scope 3).
Essity is working to promote sustainable and responsible business by choosing suppliers who share our values and comply with our Code of Conduct and Global Supplier Standard. In 2018, we strengthened our target for sourcing of fresh fiber. This means all fresh wood based fiber raw material in our products and packaging will be FSC® or PEFC™ certified.
Target
Outcome 2018
Science-Based Targets
Essity has undertaken by 2030, with 2016 as reference year, to reduce the climate impact of:
- Scope 1 and Scope 2
- Scope 3
Target
–25%
–18%
Outcome 2018
–5%
The outcome will be reported as of 2019
Suppliers: We will evaluate all of our supply streams from a total risk perspective. By 2020, we will source all of our procurement spend from suppliers committed to the criteria specified in Essity’s Global Supplier Standard.
Target
100%
Outcome 2018
71%
Fiber: All fresh wood based fiber raw material in our products and packaging will be FSC® or PEFC™ certified.
Target
100%
Outcome 2018
76%1)
Waste: All waste from all production units will be subject to material and energy recovery by 2030.
Target
100%
Outcome 2018
60%
Water: By 2020, with 2014 as reference year, our plants will:
- reduce levels of suspended solids
Target
–10%
Outcome 2018
–19%
- reduce water usage
Target
–10%
Outcome 2018
–3%
- reduce organic waste (BOD)
Target
–10%
Outcome 2018
–25%
1) As of 2018, material that fulfills FSC’s criteria for Controlled Wood is not included in the fiber target, which explains the decrease compared with 2017. All fiber must fulfill these criteria as a basic requirement.
Our contribution to the
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Goal 12
Responsible consumption and production
Essity’s contribution toward Goal 12 consists of establishing collaboration for customers and consumers within consumption and circularity. This could involve highlighting sustainability criteria in public procurements and changing behavior through the use of new business models, technology and education of customers and consumers.
Goal 13
Climate action
Essity’s contribution toward Goal 13 involves improving resource efficiency in manufacturing, achieving Science-Based Targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and supporting relevant external initiatives and agreements.
Goal 15
Life on land
We work to promote responsible forest operations throughout our supply chain and require our suppliers to fulfill very strict criteria stipulated in our Global Supplier Standard and in our fiber policy. Essity’s contribution toward Goal 15 consists of the certification of suppliers and our own production, ensuring the use of certified fiber in Essity’s products and packaging and the responsible use of other input goods.