The SCA Sustainability Effect
Community relations 2011/2012
Making a difference in people’s lives
Everyday, SCA impacts the lives of millions of
people and the nature in which we operate.
We call it the SCA Sustainability Effect.
SCA invests considerable time and money in
community relations, ranging from major initiatives
affecting people across the globe to small-scale
projects with a local focus.
Community relations are about establishing and
maintaining a mutually and sustainable beneficial
relationship with the communities where we do business and helping to improve people’s everyday lives.
It’s about SCA being a good corporate citizen willing
to assume responsibility for people and nature, and
taking an active interest in the well-being of the
communities in which we operate.
In return, SCA gains a number of long-term benefits
in the form of community support, loyalty and goodwill. It also helps us attract and retain top talents,
giving employees a sense of pride in working at SCA
and adding to our corporate culture. Making community relations part of our business strategy and
targets also positions SCA favourably among customers and improve our market position. Positive,
proactive links with the community have a beneficial
effect on our bottom line.
SCA prioritises initiatives with a clear link to its business, which is why many of these relate to hygiene,
health, education, women and children.
Kersti Strandqvist
Senior Vice President, Corporate Sustainability
Community relations as part of
the business strategy
Reaching out through education, partnerships and donations is a powerful way for
SCA to make a difference in people’s lives.
Competitive business and social pressures are
forcing a redefinition of the relationship between
company and community. The inclusion of community involvement in a company’s business strategy not only helps attract and retain top talents,
but it also creates a competitve advantage that
can add to the bottom line.
In 2011, SCA invested about EUR 2.8m (SEK 26m)
in community relations, corresponding to 0.3% of
the company’s operating profit. Some 300 projects were registered in the company’s web-based
system, which is more than twice the number
reported in 2010.
More than 100 of the initiatives are related to health
and hygiene, making it the dominating area for
community relations in terms of the number of
projects, although the total amount spent on sports
and culture was slightly more. Sports and culture
include major projects, such as the partnership with
the Philadelphia Eagles’ American football team in
the US and sponsorship of the Timrå ice hockey
team in Sweden.
Emergency projects are dominated by donations to
the Red Cross and included Japan earthquake relief and tornado relief support in the US. Education
mainly relates to health and hygiene, such as Tork’s
“Clean hands” education programme in various
countries. More information about these initiatives
is presented in the following pages.
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US top the
World Giving Index, compiled by the British Charities
Aid foundation, meaning that these are the countries
and citizens most likely to make donations to charity.
The tradition of making donations as part of being a
good citizen most likely explains why the Americas
and Asia Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand) are the regions that invest the most in community relations initiatives by SCA. The Americas
and Asia Pacific represent 24% and 20%, respectively, of the funds invested, while their corresponding
shares of net sales are 9% and 4%.
SCA’s community relations investments in 2011 by region
Europe, 56%
Americas, 24%
Asia, 20%
SCA’s community relations investments in 2011 by focus area
Sports/Culture, 30 %
Health and Hygiene, 28 %
Emergency support, 17%
Education, 10%
Environment, 7%
Other, 1 %
Health and hygiene
Many of SCA’s community relations initiatives
support improved health and hygiene conditions. As the world’s second-largest hygiene
company, SCA has a responsibility to raise
awareness of the importance of strict hygiene
standards.
Working for improved school hygiene
Small children are notoriously prone to infection.
Staff and child education is essential. Textile towels –
which spread infection – are still widely used.
SCA has the ambition to raise children’s awareness
of the importance of hygiene. Russia, Germany,
Latin America, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland are
examples of markets where SCA brands Tork (AwayFrom-Home tissue) and Pequeñin (baby diapers) arrange school programmes. The programmes include
such activities as hygiene information, distribution of
product samples or developing preschool guidelines
for good hygiene practices. Tork’s “Clean hands”
hygiene education programme received the “Best
for Children” quality award from the Russian state in
2011.
Increased awareness breaks taboos in China
In China, average life expectancy has increased by
almost ten years over the past four decades. This
has increasingly pushed the taboo subject of adult
incontinence to the forefront. To provide elderly
Chinese with a more dignified life, it is crucial to
break the silence associated with incontinence.
Through an extensive training programme for
nurses, SCA is helping to break the taboos, as well
as increase awareness of incontinence and TENA’s
range of incontinence products. At the beginning of
2012, SCA had trained more than 6,000 nurses at
1,100 hospitals.
Some of SCA’s many initiatives:
• SCA supports the biannual Global Forum on
Incontinence, a conference that attracts thought
leaders in the incontinence care field from across
the globe.
• In Russia, social workers without a medical background often care for people in their homes. TENA
educates them regarding incontinence care and
hygiene procedures.
Education
Education is a key element in helping individuals develop to their full potential. SCA drives
a number of educational programmes to raise
the general level of awareness of hygiene and
forestry.
Lessons in growing up
Entering puberty is no picnic. There is a need for
relevant information about the physiological and
emotional changes that girls experience during this
period in life. Several SCA school programmes in
Latin America are directed at teenage girls to
educate them about what happens to their bodies
during puberty and menstruation. In Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Peru
and Puerto Rico, more than one and a half million
girls have completed the programmes since their
inception. The programmes are run by SCA’s
feminine care brands, Nosotras and Donnasept.
Bringing forests to school
“The forest in school” programme is one of the old-
est school cooperation projects in Sweden. It started
in 1973 with the mission to provide school children
with a better understanding of forests, forestry
and the forest industry. Thousands of children and
teachers take part in visits to SCA harvesting sites,
sawmills and paper mills every year and SCA offers
schools the opportunity to use a forest on SCA land
for school activities. As part of the project, SCA is
also involved in teacher training and offers practical
experience to school pupils interested in forestry or
engineering.
Some
of SCA’s many initiatives:
’
• More than 200 nurses and care providers participated in the first TENA Empowering the Elderly
seminar in Malaysia. The aim was to educate care
providers in matters concerning elderly care.
• SCA has an ongoing scholarship programme for
children of SCA employees in the US and Canada.
Scholarships are awarded based on achievements in
academic performance, leadership and participation
in school and community activities.
Partnerships and donations
Supporting and liaising with an organisation is
an effective way of promoting the social and
economic well-being of communities.
The Red Cross – one of SCA’s partners
SCA partners with local Red Cross organisations
worldwide. The involvement varies from long-term
partnerships, such as with the Red Cross in France,
to emergency relief.
In France, SCA and the Red Cross entered a partnership in 2011 aiming to support the country’s
homeless and encouraging employee involvement.
The first joint activity was the distribution of 40,000
hygiene kits to homeless people. The ability to maintain personal hygiene is essential to people’s health,
self-esteem and dignity. The partnership includes
sponsorship of an educational road show for teenagers, information programmes for elderly and internal involvement among SCA employees, including
first-aid training, fundraising and volunteer work.
Improving hygiene conditions in Africa
Due to poor sanitary and hygiene conditions, illness
and death are common aspects of everyday life
in Sudan and Niger. SCA’s hygiene expertise can
directly contribute to improving the quality of life in
these countries.
In partnership with the NGO Oxfam Novib, SCA
works to improve hygiene conditions in South Sudan
and Niger. As part of this initiative and through its
Libresse (feminine care), Edet (consumer tissue)
and Tork (Away-From-Home tissue) brands, SCA is
building latrines, installing sanitary facilities such as
hand-washing sinks and providing soap in schools.
SCA is organising lessons in hygiene and providing
free sanitary towels and awarding scholarships to
girls to increase their chances of attending and
completing school. In Niger, SCA’s TENA (incontinence care) brand supports young women suffering
from incontinence caused by fistula due to childbirth
at a very young age.
Some of SCA’s many initiatives:
• SCA’s Libra brand of feminine
hygiene products has been a sponsor of The Ovarian Cancer Research
Foundation (OCRF) in Australia since
2006. Libra’s support also extends
to raising awareness of the disease
and the OCRF via special advertising campaigns.
• Cash4kids – employees vote for
a children’s charity with a focus on
health and supporting local charities
and
communities in the UK.
• SCA’s TENA brand has donated
incontinence care products to the
Huband Cradle of Hope orphanage
in Nairobi, Kenya. The products are
intended for children, many of whom
are affected by HIV.
• In Malaysia, SCA has a collaboration with the National Autism Society.
Activities include fundraising events,
charity concerts, etc.
Sports and culture
Sports and culture often play a major role in local
communities. SCA’s involvement ranges from
sponsorship of professional teams at national
level to contributions to local events.
Going Green with the Philadelphia Eagles
SCA’s partnership with the Philadelphia Eagles American football team since 2007 involves more than “just”
sports. The Eagles selected SCA and Tork as its sole
hygiene supplier due to SCA’s excellent sustainability
commitments. SCA played a vital role in helping and
advising the Eagles set up their ground-breaking Go
Green programme, making them the ”greenest” national sports team in the United States.
The Philadelphia Eagles continuously search for ways
to reduce their environmental footprint, such as using
beverage cups made of corn and purchasing 100%
recycled tissue and soap-dispensing systems from
SCA. The partnership also includes mutual events,
such as tree-planting projects.
Supporting the local community
For many years, SCA has sponsored Timrå IK, the
leading ice hockey team in the Sundsvall region.
Ice hockey is a very popular sport in Sweden; many
SCA employees in the Sundsvall region are enthusiastic fans of Timrå IK and have children who play in
junior ice hockey teams.
SCA owns a VIP lounge in the Timrå IK ice hockey
arena, which is frequently used for representation. A
substantial share of the money donated to Timrå IK
is earmarked for sports activities for juniors and girls.
Timrå is a professional hockey team, but most SCA
community initiatives in the region are directed
towards a broad range of sports as well as youth
activities, including soccer, figure skating, judo,
theatre, music and social events.
Some of SCA’s many initiatives:
• For several years, SCA in the US has donated money
to the American Cancer Society’s Sole Burner Run/Walk.
SCA also covers registration fees for participating employees and family members from its Wisconsin facilities.
• In the UK, SCA supported a Coast-to-Coast Charity
Bike Ride to benefit women suffering from breast cancer.
The bike ride took place over four days and covered more
than 370 kilometres.
• For the fifth consecutive year, TENA organised the “For
a full life” race in Mexico. More than 5,000 people, most
of whom over the age of 50, participated in the event.
• To support a healthy work-life balance, SCA in
Germany arranges holiday activities for the children of
employees during the summer vacation. This enables
employees to work while their children can partake in
holiday activities on site.
• SCA and TENA sponsored two races in France in
support of the fight against breast cancer, “La Parisienne”, a women-only race in Paris with 23,000 participants and the Odyssea races organised throughout
France with 42,000 participants.
Environment
Community relations include caring for the
environment. Few aspects of life affect people
as much as their surrounding environment and
their ability to enjoy it.
• A “Tree Pool” for SCA employees brightens up
their communities with a lasting gift. The Tree Pool
programme helps employees to plant trees where
they live, providing their communities with a piece
of nature. Participation in the programme has been
even greater than expected and trees have been
planted throughout Europe in all kinds of locations,
from preschools and sports clubs to community
centres and town centres.
• SCA and its UK and Ireland consumer tissue brand
Velvet are leading a pioneering tree-planting project
in Brazil. So far, it has resulted in over three million
indigenous trees being planted in previously deforested areas.
• SCA has joined the “Million Tree Project” to fight
desertification and rebuild forests in Inner Mongolia,
China. To date, SCA has donated 2,000 trees to
combat climate change and restore the ecological
environment.
Emergency relief
SCA focuses on long-term community relations
activities. However, the company acknowledges the need for emergency efforts in crisis
situations.
• SCA contributed to the efforts of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Ethiopian refugee camps
by supplying 1.6 million feminine care products to
Somali women and girls forced to flee their homes
because of civil war and drought. In emergency
situations, women comprise a particularly vulnerable group and sanitary products are crucial for their
health and dignity. The feminine care products had a
value of about EUR 42,000.
• In collaboration with its Japanese business
partner, Unicharm, SCA donated EUR 11,000 to the
Red Cross emergency teams in Japan to support
relief efforts following the earthquake and tsunami in
March 2011.
• Thailand’s worst flooding in 50 years affected the
lives of millions. In addition to donating Drypers baby
diapers to an emergency relief centre on the out-
skirts of Bangkok, SCA employees also donated time
and funds to aid flood victims. Personnel in Malaysia,
Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand raised EUR
3,500 for the cause, a donation that was matched by
SCA.
SCA is a global hygiene and forest company that develops
and produces personal care products, tissue, publication
papers and solid-wood products.
Sales are conducted in some 100 countries. SCA has many
well-known brands, including the global brands TENA and Tork.
Sales in 2011 amounted to EUR 11.7 billion (SEK 106 billion).
SCA has approximately 37,000 employees.
More information at www.sca.com
Contacts: kersti.strandqvist@sca.com, SVP Corporate Sustainability, christina.ameln@sca.com, CSR Director, marita.sander@sca.com, Sustainability Communications Manager