Stakeholder dialog

We seek to actively engage with customers, consumers, suppliers, employees, investors, media, NGOs, governments, politicians, decision-makers, regulators and academics. An active stakeholder dialog is a means of ensuring that our priorities and methods are relevant in today’s society.

Customers

SCA has a broad product portfolio and many different customers, both end-consumers and customers such as the retail trade, distributors, printing houses and health and medical care services. All SCA business units maintain a close dialog with their customers and follow up customer satisfaction through surveys, face-to-face meetings and third-party assessments.

In-depth consumer insights reveal areas of improvement. SCA conducts market and consumer surveys, visits consumers’ homes to learn about their lives and interests, and arranges focus groups to gain insights into consumer preferences, behaviors and attitudes. Valuable insights are also gained through SCA’s many help lines for consumer contact and through customer service’s handling of queries and complaints. Read more in chapter Customers and consumers.

Other

SCA regularly meets investors and analysts, including socially responsible investors (SRIs). It conducts employee surveys and employee performance management reviews. Moreover, SCA communicates with other groups and individuals in matters that have a major impact on society in general and local communities in particular. SCA regularly meets with NGOs, journalists and people living close to the Group’s mills.

In Northern Sweden, there is an ongoing dialog in relation to SCA’s wind power investments. SCA’s wind farms are generally located in sparsely populated areas, but there have still been local protests against some of the wind farms. SCA arranges regular information meetings, open to all stakeholders.

SCA is a member of several networks, including the UN Global Compact, the Consumer Goods Forum and a number of different national and regional industry organizations. SCA participates in the WWF Environmental Paper Company Index, and SCA Forest Products participates in the WWF Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN). SCA has a partnership with the United Nations’ Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). In 2016, SCA produced its fourth Hygiene Matters report in cooperation with WSSCC and the report was launched at a side event to the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

SCA works actively to build partnerships with policy-makers in countries where new healthcare systems are under development. In 2015, representatives from SCA, Vinda and the Chinese city of Jiangmen signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) concerning the joint development of a pilot program for elderly care in Jiangmen. The MoU was renewed in September 2016 at a ceremony in Stockholm. In conjunction with the signing ceremony, SCA – together with the Sweden-China Trade Council – arranged a China seminar that was attended by 140 people.

SCA also works to raise awareness of incontinence as a medical condition, and to contribute to better conditions for people who suffer from incontinence within the scope of the health and medical care systems in various countries. One important platform for communication is through the Global Forum on Incontinence (GFI). GFI is a global platform for education and debate on incontinence for stakeholders, such as medical experts, politicians and payers. The sixth GFI Conference took place in Berlin in 2016, see chapter Knowledge contributes to making a better world.

In 2015, SCA organized a patient roundtable to discuss incontinence and the provision of better continence care at home and in the community. The roundtable was co-hosted by two leading pan-European civil society groups – AGE Platform Europe and Eurocarers – and resulted in a 2016 joint position statement, agreeing on a set of key policy recommendations and actions to improve the management of care for people with incontinence and their carers.

In 2016, the EU presented its new circular economy package, with a goal to make Europe more competitive and resource efficient. The action plan will affect several sectors, including waste, and SCA is aware of the need to pinpoint solutions in this area while working with others and in its operations to find ways to achieve a more circular society. Consequently, SCA joined the Circular Economy 100 (CE100), an Ellen MacArthur Foundation program established to enable organizations to develop new circular opportunities, see chapter People and nature innovations.

At the end of 2016, the EU Commission presented its review of the EU ecolabel certification criteria, in which SCA had been actively involved. In April, a delegation from the EU Commission visited SCA’s Ortmann site in Austria, Europe’s largest tissue Ecolabel manufacturer in Europe, to study technical aspects of tissue making.

SCA encourages sustainable forest management and supports the two international certification schemes for forests and wood raw materials, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC^®) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC^®). SCA also works to raise awareness of how active forest management and increasing the use of forest products can help to combat climate change.