Essity Annual and Sustainability Report Feature: Innovate Leading Brands

By continuously improving and expanding our solutions for customers and consumers, we help people around the world live a better life at the same time as we are strengthening our brands and gaining market shares. To launch successful innovations, we get to know our customers, consumers, users, resellers and distributors, often through digital interaction. Our innovation work also aims to reduce resource consumption to launch solutions that contribute to a sustainable and circular society.

Importance of hygiene and health

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are more aware of the importance of hygiene and health for well-being and in reducing the risk of disease. To help people cope with the challenges brought about by the pandemic, Essity has for example expanded its offering with face masks for the retail trade and to customers in the Professional Hygiene business area. In the retail trade, the face masks were launched under the consumer brands Tempo, Lotus, Zewa and Colhogar and in Essity’s Professional Hygiene business area under the leading global brand Tork. Essity also increased delivery capacity of hand sanitizer under the Tork brand. The launch of the Household Towel Home Collection is another example of how Essity has further developed its offerings during the year to meet needs as people spend more time at home and, in parallel, want to raise hygiene standards with more wiping, cleaning and fewer textiles.

Reducing environmental impact

In order to continue to grow the company’s sales while reducing its environmental impact, Essity is striving to develop new solutions, business models and production methods that contribute to a more sustainable society. We strive to offer sustainable products, packaging and services. The aim is for our packaging to be recyclable and comprise renewable and recycled materials. In 2020, Feminine Care introduced packaging for pads and panty liners made from renewable material for its new brand identity V-zone. The plastic packaging for pads is made from 50% renewable material in the form of responsibly grown sugar cane. One step in our commitment is to provide consumers with better solutions that feature a smaller climate footprint.

In Baby Care and with the Libero brand, we have been working for many years to reduce our climate footprint. For example, Libero was first in the Nordic region with Nordic Swan Ecolabel diapers and FSC® certification. In 2020, we launched baby diapers in packaging made from 50% renewable material. The baby diapers are manufactured using 100% renewable electricity.

View the full 2020 Annual and Sustainablity report here.