Essity 2022 Annual and Sustainability Report: Improving Well-Being for People and Societies
For the well-being of people and planet
Originally published on Essity.com
Our greatest contribution
In pace with world population growth and rise in average life expectancy, there is increased need and demand for more preventive and easily accessible hygiene and health solutions. Driving awareness around and improvements to these issues is equally needed. Our products and services both save and improve lives by preventing the spread of bacteria, viruses, infections and diseases, and increase well-being and quality of life worldwide.
As Essity reaches many people around the world, it is important for us to recognize, understand and serve the diverse needs of our customers and consumers in multiple markets, while simultaneously creating a culture among our employees with a strong sense of belonging and engagement. We are building a workplace that attracts talent motivated by a clear purpose and vision for social change.
Essity conducts business in a responsible way and contributes to sustainable and inclusive societies in the communities where we operate. Furthermore, we are determined to offer the highest product and workplace safety standards to provide easily accessible, transparent product information to our customers and consumers.
Hygiene and health
Essity’s core business is directly linked to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 Good health and well-being, SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation, and SDG 12 Responsible consumption and production.
Every day, millions of people refrain from going to work or school or taking part in social events because of hygiene and health-related concerns. With Essity’s expertise and solutions, we work to spread knowledge, create awareness and empower people to address hygiene barriers. We play an important role in improving well-being in areas where gender, generational divides and variable abilities may constitute barriers to living a full and active life.
Essity initiates global dialogue and raises awareness around unspoken issues, perceived social stigma and the physical implications surrounding menstruation, incontinence, phlebology and personal and public hygiene. By challenging stigmas and providing access to products, Essity works to ensure that women and girls can continue to live an active life during menstruation and menopause. For example, our #bloodnormal campaign aims to call time on period taboos. Our TENA campaign #lastlonelymenopause aims to break barriers and the stigmas of menopause and encourage dialogue to increase the sense of inclusion and belonging.
Essity’s ambition is to develop the hygiene and health solutions of tomorrow. In parallel, we are working with solutions and models for preventive measures, health promotion and improved self-care, which is important in a world that is experiencing a population increase and strained healthcare budgets. To ensure the continued improvement of global health and well-being, we work with hand hygiene, cleaning, wound care, solutions for chronic conditions, caretaking of family members, incontinence management, menstruation and digital solutions. We also work with health promotion and enabling care systems and models for this. We are leading the industry toward a future where the well-being of both people and planet can be met by developing more sustainable products and services.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
At Essity, we create change together. Our employees are the core of the company. We are determined to ensure an inclusive work environment for all, to achieve gender balance in senior positions, and accelerate representation of under-represented groups.
Our Beliefs & Behavior form the foundation of our culture. Essity’s purpose is to improve people’s well-being by breaking barriers. Most of our brands explicitly contribute to greater inclusion in society by challenging gender or age-related stigmas. We strive to have diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) underpin what we do and how we do things.
Highlighting our efforts in the DEI area makes sense from a workplace and marketplace perspective. We know that DEI boosts innovation, improves decision making and increases employee engagement, which represent business-critical improvements for us.
Several programs and networks are offered at Essity to increase diversity in senior positions. Local activities are being carried out in various countries to target specific employee groups. Our employee survey shows that we are making good progress and provides valuable insights for our continued efforts.
Our approach to DEI includes a global strategy and roadmap, management team and workforce workshops, and the provision of inclusive leadership training to all managers. We have also included more DEI-related questions in our employee survey. In 2022, we partnered with Catalyst, a global non-profit organization that aims to create inclusive workplaces, which will enable us to accelerate our journey moving forward.
Read more about Essity’s strategic priorities, earnings and leading sustainability work in the Annual and Sustainability Report 2022, which can be downloaded at www.essity.com.
To access the digital short version, please click here.
