FOCUS SUSTAINABILITY
PEOPLE AND PLANET
While COVID-19 has heightened
awareness of health and
hygiene, it’s also had an impact
on sustainability agendas for
businesses of all sizes. According to
the Carbon Trust, over 70 per cent
of companies think environmental
management or sustainability
priorities are likely to become
more important as a result of the
pandemic.
At Kimberly-Clark Professional,
we’re on a mission to create
workplaces that keep people healthy,
safe, and sustainable. So, we’re
inviting the FM sector to engage with
us in the questions you can ask to
help balance priorities for people and
planet.
SOLVING SUSTAINABILITY
CHALLENGES
I believe that no matter where an
organisation is in its sustainability
journey, it can benefit by phasing its
ambitions. As a baseline, facilities
managers should be looking to
set challenging, yet achievable
and measurable goals to improve
their environmental sustainability
performance. Supporting feedback
and tracking mechanisms are equally
important. They ensure there is
accountability to progress.
Last year we released our “2030
Ambitions” – to improve the lives
and wellbeing of one billion people
in underserved communities
around the world with the smallest
environmental footprint. To be
completely accountable, these
goals are recognised by the Science-
Based Targets initiative. As a result
of announcing our 2030 Ambitions,
Kimberly-Clark improved its ranking
to 34th on Barron’s 2021 list of 100
Most Sustainable Companies.
We’re working hard to ensure
these goals will enable us to
support customers in achieving
their own sustainability targets.
We’re passionate about partnering
with customers – across all sectors,
including distributors and end users.
In addition to technical expertise,
we use our trusted and solutions to
help customers address their specific
sustainability challenges.
Here are four questions that can
serve as an e ective starting point:
#1 How can we waste less?
You won’t find the sustainable
or ‘green’ section in our product
catalogue or on our website
because sustainability is a key
consideration for everything we do
and manufacture.
Our products are designed to
optimise use and reduce product
waste without compromising hygiene.
As a founding member of the UK and
US Plastics Pacts, we’re committed
to solving the problem of plastic
waste. By 2025, 100 per cent of our
packaging will be reusable, recyclable,
or compostable.
#2 How can we use resources better?
E• ective and e• icient management
of resources not only brings
environmental benefits but can also
reduce costs, so it is an imperative for
all FMs. It’s important to explore every
opportunity to be more sustainable.
We know that the supply chain must
be continuously improved to create
the smallest possible footprint from
greenhouse gas emissions to waste
and water. Taking a circular approach,
20 per cent of our global energy
use is now from renewable sources.
We share water with communities,
recycling water, recovering resources,
and ensuring it is returned cleaner
than we found it. For example, at our
mill in Koblenz, Germany, 900 tons of
CO™ emissions are reduced annually
through water recycling.
I’m especially proud to say that
each year, we give new life to over half
a million tons of recycled paper. As
one of the world’s largest recyclers of
paper, 70 per cent of the fibre in our
products in 2019 came from recycled
sources. We are on target to ensure
that 30 per cent of the plastic in our
Europe product packaging is recycled
content by the end of 2021.
#3 How can we keep employees safe
and well?
A survey conducted by Harris
Interactive on behalf of Kimberly-Clark
Professional – about how COVID-19
has a• ected perceptions of cleanliness
and hygiene in the workplace –
showed that three out of four people
in the UK do not feel safe going back
to the workplace, while 86 per cent
said they would avoid a location
if they didn’t think it was COVID
secure. The pandemic has clearly
increased the focus on workplace
health, hygiene, and wellbeing, and
it is important we work closely with
customers to restore confidence and
ensure that people feel safe.
#4 Empowering cleaning heroes
FM managers know better than most
the crucial role their frontline people
play every day. The pandemic created
many challenges from economic
pressures to ensuring employee and
visitor safety, and we have worked
closely with the sector to ensure it has
had the best advice and access to the
best products.
We’re proud to have launched
scholarships for 10,000 cleaning
professionals to become certified in
infectious disease control measures,
which is a critical step for pandemic
response. The Kimberly-Clark
Professional Scholarship Programme
is o• ered in partnership with the ISSA
and Global Bio-risk Advisory Council
(GBAC). It focuses on prevention,
response, and control measures, with
an emphasis on the novel Coronavirus
(SARS-CoV-2) and COVID-19.
Delegates receive training, guidance,
certification, crisis management,
assistance, and leadership for all types
of organisations.
Do you know a cleaning professional
who would benefit from this?
Funds are still available for all
cleaning companies and in-house
professionals. Sign up for programme
here www.issa.com/kcp-scholarships.
It is so rewarding to work for a
business where sustainability and
ethical behaviour is part of our DNA.
Olena Neznal, Vice President, Kimberly-Clark Professional EMEA, invites business
to consider newly-urgent questions sparked by the pandemic. Namely, how do we
waste less, use resources better, and keep employees safe?
44 MAY 2021
/kcp-scholarships
