About the report

This report describes SCA’s sustainability initiatives from an environmental, social and financial perspective. SCA publishes a sustainability report each year.

The Sustainability Report and the Annual Report should be viewed as a single unit in which information may be provided in either report or, where appropriate, in both. Corporate governance is an example of a subject that is referred to briefly in the Sustainability Report and a more detailed description is provided in the Annual Report’s corporate governance section.

Reporting principles

The environmental and social data reported pertains to the 2015 calendar year. The figures included comply with relevant reporting and consolidation principles in accordance with the principles in the financial statements. The figures cover the SCA Group’s wholly owned subsidiaries and subsidiaries in which SCA owns at least 50% of the company. If SCA’s ownership of a company is 50% or more, the entire company is included. An exception is made in the case of the Chinese company Vinda, in which SCA owns 51.4% of the votes and which was consolidated as a subsidiary in 2014. The data from Vinda includes the number of employees, their age and gender distribution. Vinda publishes an environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, which is available at www.vinda.com.

Some social data from joint ventures is not included. Code of Conduct data is one example, due to the fact that SCA and its joint ventures do not share a common code. The Colombian Familia Group, which is SCA’s largest joint-venture company (refer to Note F1 in the SCA Annual Report), reports in accordance with the GRI G4 guidelines. For more information, visit www.grupofamilia.com.co.

Newly acquired businesses are integrated when they have been part of the Group for one calendar year. The historic environmental and social data of newly acquired units is included to the greatest possible extent in order to increase comparability (also refer to the section on comparability below). The data from divested units is excluded in its entirety as of the divestment date. Historic data for discontinued units is used.

When adjustments have been made compared with earlier reports, a note is appended directly beside the text or table. A main site is a production facility that is wholly owned by SCA and that has 100 or more employees.

Data collection

Data provided in the report is compiled through various systems, primarily the Group’s ABS accounting system, Resource Management System (RMS) and SCA’s system for collection of social data.

Environmental data

The RMS encompasses more than 80 production sites, covering virtually the entire company’s environmental impact and resource utilization from production. It includes data from manufacturing operations but not from corporate staffs, offices or joint ventures. Data from stand-alone tissue converting sites is included in the main mother reel supplying site. Each unit reports the following data to the system:

  • raw material consumption
  • incoming and outgoing shipments
  • production volumes
  • energy consumption broken down by hydroelectric power, co-generation and power from the grid
  • fuel consumption broken down by biofuels, fossil fuels and electric boilers
  • air emissions, including data on fossil and biogenic carbon dioxide
  • water emissions
  • solid waste

The data is reported both internally and externally at the mill level, business unit level and for the Group as a whole.

Social, Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) and Human Resource (HR) data

Data is provided from different internal systems and tools depending on the nature of the data. HR data resides in SCA’ s HR system and other qualitative data is collected in SCA’s database for social data.

Comparability

Certain data is adjusted retroactively to facilitate comparisons. Figures for the preceding year are available in previous publications of SCA’s Sustainability Reports. This applies for example to data encompassed by SCA’s sustainability targets, such as CO2 and health and safety.

The results of the Group’s CO2 target and water target are adjusted each year in relation to production levels. Other environmental data is reported in absolute figures.

UNGP

This is the first year this report has applied the reporting framework for the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and SCA has reported on the overarching aspects contained in the framework.

GRI reporting

For the eighth consecutive year, SCA has prepared its report in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. The 2015 report adheres to GRI G4 guidelines at Core level. Accordingly, the Report has been structured in accordance with GRI principles, meaning that the content is determined by the issues that are most material to SCA and its stakeholders, and that the content provides a complete overview of the operations. With a few exceptions, SCA reports in accordance with all GRI indicators and on a level identified as material. The identification of specific standard disclosure GRI aspects to report has been matched with SCA’s materiality analysis. Any omissions or incomplete data are either commented on directly in the GRI index or on this page.

The entire Sustainability Report has been reviewed by PwC. The report is aimed at specialist audiences with an interest in SCA’s sustainability performance, including analysts, investors and NGOs. More detailed information about SCA’s work on environmental and social issues is available at www.sca.com.