Investing in knowledge to increase quality of life

Enable more people every day to enjoy a fuller life

SCA has the knowledge, experience, products and solutions as well as the commitment to contribute to improving hygiene standards worldwide. The company shares its expertise in hygiene through training programs, through which 2,000,000 people were educated in 2016. For example, SCA educates children about the importance of washing their hands, girls about menstruation and puberty and nurses about incontinence care.

Boy sitting on the sidewalk with a bucket (photo)

What makes SCA successful is its understanding, knowledge and insight about the needs of customers and consumers and its ability to transform this into innovative offerings that increase quality of life and make everyday life easier for people. SCA strives to offer the best value for customers and consumers with affordable hygiene solutions to everyone and by adapting its offering to local and regional market conditions to increase hygiene standards worldwide.

SCA continues to develop its product categories and brands to offer innovative solutions, maintain and strengthen relations with customers and to break taboos in order to achieve positive changes and effects in people’s lives. The company has several strategies that contribute to achieving the objective of enabling more people to enjoy a fuller life. From winning in chosen geographies and product categories – which helps SCA to focus on the regions and product categories where the company can have the most profound impact – to focusing on customers and consumers, where SCA’s close dialog with customers and consumers helps the company to understand and gather information about needs and purchasing behavior and, through innovation, build a bigger brands.

Investing in knowledge

2 million

people were educated through SCA’s hygiene training program worldwide

SCA invests in education to improve hygiene standards in the world and at the same time create business opportunities. SCA shares its hygiene expertise with children, women and men, parents, family members and care providers worldwide and works to break the taboos surrounding, for example, menstruation and incontinence.

Examples of SCA’s hygiene training courses in 2016:

1,485,400 young women were educated about menstruation and puberty, mainly in Latin America and Asia. The courses in schools are intended to teach girls about what happens to their bodies, to break the silence and taboo surrounding menstruation and to build a market for SCA’s brands.

95,500 nurses and other caregivers were trained in incontinence, individualized incontinence care, skincare and dementia across the globe.

34,900 people were educated in hand washing. Using the cartoon characters Max and Ella, children carried out experiments, solved problems and learned practical tips about hand hygiene in a fun and inspiring way. “Ella’s hand washing adventure” is available as a smartphone app for the iPad and Android.

Hygiene Matters – an initiative to promote a global dialog concerning hygiene, health and well-being

All too often, hygiene issues, which affect millions of people worldwide, are pushed aside as if they did not exist.

The aim of SCA’s Hygiene Matters initiative is to promote a global dialog concerning hygiene, health and well-being and to improve hygiene standards in the world. Many of the activities can also be linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Focus for the initiative includes breaking the taboos surrounding menstruation and incontinence, highlighting the economic impact of hygiene and promoting innovation in the hygiene sector to support the sustainable development of the sector.

SCA has gathered insights and ignited the conversation around the role and importance of hygiene over a period of many years and via its Hygiene Matters initiative since 2008. An important part of the initiative is the Hygiene Matters report. One aim of the 2016–2017 Hygiene Matters report is to raise awareness among stakeholders of necessary measures. The report is based on a global survey of 12,000 people from 12 countries, gathering their perspectives on hygiene, health and well-being. SCA is proud that the report was produced in collaboration with the UN body the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council for the first time.

In October 2016, SCA and the United Nations (UN) Foundation convened the fourth annual dialog on the UN Global Agenda with the aim to contribute to better hygiene standards around the world and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

SCA is ready to start a global conversation. Follow the dialog on www.HygieneMatters.com

Back to SCA's strategy