Tissue

STOCKHOLM, Nov. 17, 2020 (Press Release) -Today, hygiene and health company Essity continues its commitment to breaking barriers to well-being by being a convening partner to the United Nations Foundation’s annual Global Dialogue on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In conjunction with the meeting, Essity will launch the seventh edition of the Hygiene and Health Report made in collaboration with United Nation’s entity Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).

The dialogue gathers representatives from the UN system, public and private sector, and civil society to discuss actions to make progress on the SDGs. This year especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we enter this Decade of Action to achieve the SDGs, it is critical to understand: What actions on global hygiene and health need to be accelerated? A key input to this is provided by the Hygiene and Health report.

The report aims to bring much needed insights, evidence and solutions to the societal and political debate, in order to accelerate action on improving hygiene and health standards and practices around the world. It builds on a biennial global survey, conducted by Essity, with over 15,000 respondents worldwide in 15 countries. This year, an additional survey was conducted in July 2020 reflecting the effects of COVID-19 on hygiene and health. The survey reveals a high demand to improve hygiene and health worldwide. The respondents point out increased funding for healthcare sector (28%), raised global standards on hygiene and health (27%) and education on proper hygiene practices (18%) as the most sought-after measures to policy makers.

“Essity has valuable experience to respond to the challenges of pandemics and other health and hygiene related challenges, both in the short and long term. I strongly believe that we here at the Global Dialogue today, representing both the private and public sector, have a role to play in improving hygiene and health worldwide. We have the knowledge and solutions for this and need to work together for a sustainable recovery and accelerated action on the SDG’s,” says Magnus Groth, President and CEO of Essity.

In the report, findings and cases underline the importance of basic hygiene and good health for all, particularly to avoid infections such as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and COVID-19. Research and testimonials also highlight how important it is to continue break barriers on social norms surrounding menstruation and incontinence. Moreover, it stresses the importance of a person-centered approach and underlines the opportunities that innovation and digitalization brings, in order to ensure that large groups of people can participate fully in society.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call to re-focus on what is essential for preventive health. The pandemic has underlined the importance of the fundamental practices learned since childhood, such as handwashing with soap, in promoting basic hygiene to combat infections all around the world.” says Sue Coates, Executive Director a.i. at WSSCC.  “With one in five health care facilities lacking access to basic sanitation services and one in two people lacking access to safely managed sanitation services, we believe now is the time to act.”

To deliver at the scale required to achieve sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health, WSSCC is announcing later this month, that it is transforming into the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF).

"We are pleased to collaborate with purpose-driven companies like Essity, which has put the Sustainable Development Goals at the core of its mission to raise hygiene and health standards, particularly at this critical time," said Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the UN Foundation.

Essity is a leading global hygiene and health company. We are dedicated to improving well-being through our products and services. Sales are conducted in approximately 150 countries under the leading global brands TENA and Tork, and other strong brands, such as JOBST, Leukoplast, Libero, Libresse, Lotus, Nosotras, Saba, Tempo, Vinda and Zewa. Essity has about 46,000 employees. Net sales in 2019 amounted to approximately SEK 129bn (EUR 12.2bn). The company’s headquarters is located in Stockholm, Sweden, and Essity is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. Essity breaks barriers to well-being and contributes to a healthy, sustainable and circular society.

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 13, 2020 (Press Release) -Sofidel America, the U.S. subsidiary of Sofidel Group, a global leader in the manufacturing of tissue paper for hygienic and domestic use, announced today it has been awarded the 2020 FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Leadership Award, which recognizes organizations that contribute toward responsible sourcing and forest management.

The award cited Sofidel for promoting FSC to its retail partners, estimating that more than half of its finished products sold in 2020 will carry the FSC logo.

“Sofidel has adopted what is commonly known as the ‘gold standard’ for responsible forest management and has actively championed the strategy with existing and new partners,” said Derek Dafoe, vice president marketing and sales in the U.S. “Our strategy has helped our partners provide leadership in the realm of sustainability and continues to distance Sofidel from our competitors. We are committed to a sustainability focused growth strategy that includes utilizing responsibly managed natural resources in the North American market.”

Sofidel Group places strategic importance on sustainability as a lever for growth and development. It has set objectives to minimize its impact on natural capital – in line with the UN Agenda 2030 sustainability goals – and to maximize social benefits, with the goal of creating shared value for all stakeholders.

The Group assesses its supply of raw material and monitors its suppliers on the performance of the factories producing pulp, as well as on the origin of the wood. In 2019, 100% of the cellulose purchased by Sofidel was certified by independent third parties with forest certification systems. Sofidel also has signed the Vancouver Declaration, a pledge promoted by FSC to work towards more sustainable forest products.

“We are proud to be recognized by such an authoritative institution like FSC for our responsible forest management system,” said Anthony Burton, quality system director in the U.S. “This is one of the pillars of our sustainability strategy, together with energy efficiency ad optimized use of water and sustainable packaging, aimed at creating increasingly efficient products with a more and more reduced environmental impact.”

This award is an added recognition of Sofidel’s sustainability efforts. Recently, the Group had its emissions reduction targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as consistent with levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Specifically, Sofidel has committed to reduce its scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 40% per ton of paper, its scope 3 emissions from its pulping suppliers’ process by 40% per ton of paper by 2030, and its remaining scope 3 GHG emissions by 24% per ton of paper by 2030 from a 2018 base year.

The Sofidel Group

The Sofidel Group is one of the leading manufacturers of paper for hygienic and domestic use worldwide. Established in 1966, the Group has subsidiaries in 12 countries – Italy, Spain, the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Romania and the USA – with more than 6,000 employees, net sales of 1,919 million Euros (2019) and a production capacity of over one million tonnes per year (1,308,000 tonnes in 2019). “Regina”, its most well-known brand, is present on almost all the reference markets. Other brands include: Softis, Le Trèfle, Sopalin, Thirst Pockets, KittenSoft, Nalys, Cosynel, Lycke, Nicky, Papernet. A member of the UN Global Compact and the international WWF Climate Savers program, the Sofidel Group considers sustainability a strategic factor with regards to growth and is committed to reducing its impact on natural capital and maximising social benefits, setting as objective the creation of shared added value for all stakeholders. Sofidel’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets to 2030 have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as consistent with reductions required to keep warming to well-below 2°C, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Sofidel America

Sofidel America is a subsidiary of the Sofidel Group. It was established in 2012 through the acquisition of the Cellynne tissue company, which was founded in 1988. Sofidel America has six manufacturing plants strategically located across the United States, with plans for future expansion. Manufacturing facilities are in Haines City, Fla.; Green Bay, Wis.; Henderson, Nev.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Circleville, Ohio; and Inola, Okla. Its U.S. headquarters is in Horsham, Pa.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®)

Founded in 1994, FSC^®is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental, international organization, which brings together producers, converters and environmental associations. Through inspections, its purpose is to certify the compliance of forests, plantations and products derived from them with standards for responsible use of the resource. According to the latest figures for 2019, the certified forest area covers over 200 million hectares around the world, just over half of which is in Europe.

LUCCA, ITALY, Nov. 12, 2020 (Press Release) -Wepa Group is one of the largest tissue manufacturers in Europe, with 13 sites, 21 paper machines, a production of approx. 780,000 t/year, and a positive annual growth trend. Since 2002, Toscotec and Wepa’s cooperation has been particularly strong at Wepa Marsberg-Giershagen, where Toscotec supplied a new tissue line on a turnkey basis, completely rebuilt PM 5 in two different steps and installed new hoods on other two existing machines, with the result that all tissue machines at the mill are now equipped with TT Hoods.

PM 4 and PM 7 Hood rebuilds: Consumption reduction & Speed increase

In order to evaluate the return on the investment, it is always interesting to compare the efficiency of the equipment – consumption and performance - before and after the rebuild. This comparison is particularly clear if we look at PM 4 and PM 7, where the modification involved only the hoods and the air system. After the installation of TT Hood on PM 4, the mill achieved a 12.5% reduction in gas consumption and 50mpm increase in machine speed. The results on PM 7 were similar, with a 13.3% reduction in gas consumption and 50mpm increase in speed.

In general terms, for a tissue machine that produces 30,000 t/y with a thermal consumption of 1.3MWh/t, 10% of drying energy savings equals a cost reduction of approximately 4 €/t, i.e. 120,000 €/y. Additional savings coming from electrical load reduction and machine speed increase must also be considered.

The above figures offer a clear picture of the potential benefits coming from the use of fully updated equipment including state-of-the-art devices dedicated to:

• Energy saving: complete heat recovery chains for steam generation, air and water heating
• Hoods regulation: automatic balancing system
• Pollutants control: burner management system, burner control and fine-tuning.

TT Hoods: customized technology for the highest reliability

TT Hoods are entirely custom-made, in order to meet the needs of the paper machine. At WEPA Giershagen, Toscotec calculated the best combination of the open area, hole diameter, and hole pattern to achieve top performance and efficiency.

TT Hoods are designed and manufactured at Toscotec’s headquarters in Lucca, where its engineers and workers have more than 20 years of experience in hoods and air systems. This expertise guarantees the reliability and the constant improvement of their design and performances.

The art of project management in rebuild projects

Finally, time schedule is always essential in rebuild activities. Wepa Giershagen required Toscotec to schedule every phase of the project, allocating the right resources and time, in order to guarantee an accurate paper-to-paper machine shutdown period. On Wepa Giershagen PM 7 for example, the scheduled paper-to-paper shutdown was of 360 hours. The entire work was completed and tested in only 332 hours, i.e. 28 hours ahead of schedule.