In the Netherlands, SCA is best known for its brands Edet, Libresse, Tork, Tempo and Tena. In addition to the divisions Personal Care and Tissues, SCA has another division: Forest Products.

Planet versus People

“Green is what we do well”, says Gertie Eikenaar, SCA Netherlands' head of corporate communication. “Sustainability is at the core of our Forest Products. However, we can still make progress in the field of Personal Care and Tissues. People-related materialities are, next to to planet-related materialities, very important from the perspective of these divisions." Based on this thought, SCA entered a three-year collaboration with Oxfam Novib aimed at creating a better personal hygiene to prevent child mortality, stimulate education for girls and improve the position of women. A collaboration from a philanthropic philosophy? "Definitely not", says Gertie Eikenaar. "The collaboration with Oxfam Novib clearly contains a win-win element. In addition to donating money for projects, we tried to generate attention and increase awareness for the poverty problems using our marketing communication of different products: 'hygiene here, hygiene there'. We are always looking the business case of CSR for SCA. That is important. Without clear shared sustainable value, a potentially interesting collaboration will quickly fade to the background."    

Strategic CSR gives SCA a singular image

SCA's next step is to work even more from an integrated sustainability approach which is aimed at synergy between the existing CSR-activities.  "Seen from the strategic point of view of CSR, it is very important that coherence is created between sustainability activities, with the objective of investing in SCA as a corporate brand, instead of generating attention for the different, individual brands such as Libresse."

Finch & Beak gave SCA a start with the following four focus areas:

• Authenticity
  (i.e.: What does the current business model look like? Which issues are material for the company?)
• Business Purpose
  (i.e.: How does the company create ‘shared value’?
• Consistency with other initiatives
• Distinctiveness from competition

The four areas are at the base of the GLOBE-US model created by Finch & Beak in 2012, which is based on the Business Model Generation-approach of Osterwalder and Pigneur. Along the seven steps of the model, social and environmental materialities of the company are listed in collaboration with the company's most relevant stakeholders, and subsequently acted on. GLOBE-US' ultimate goal is to create value from eco-efficiency, innovation and/or customer-intimacy (an increased level of customer involvement).

A new logo

With the new logo, SCA takes an important step towards a more corporate brand-related focus. “A strategically embedded sustainability policy which even more clearly show the coherency between the current CSR-activities is definitely part of that", explains Gertie Eikenaar.    

About SCA

SCA is a leading global hygiene and forest products company that develops and produces sustainable personal care, tissue and forest products. The company was founded in 1929, and as of 2017, the company has split into the the forest products company SCA and the hygiene and health company Essity, known for brands such as Tork, Libero, Edet, Tempo and Lotus. For further information, please visit www.essity.com and www.sca.com.