EPD Australasia member Asaleo Care joins Climate Leaders Coalition

5th Sep 2019

New Zealand’s Climate Leaders Coalition was launched in July 2018 to promote business leadership and collective action on the issue of climate change. To date 114 Chief Executives have signed the joint statement, committing their organisations to take voluntary action on climate change.

One of the most recent signatories is EPD Australasia member Asaleo Care. A leader in personal care and hygiene products in our region, Asaleo Care produce well-known consumer brands, including Purex, Handee and Sorbent, as well as B2B brand Tork.

In 2017, Asaleo Care set the benchmark for sustainable tissue manufacturing through the public release of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for some of the Tork, Purex and Handee paper products manufactured at their Kawerau plant which uses geothermal steam.

The EPDs are a life cycle assessment of these products to identify sources of greater environmental stewardship and resource efficiency. The assessment highlighted the high share of renewable energy of up to 78% embodied in the products. Impressively, this figure includes all energy used in the supply chain and manufacturing operations, all transport fuels and energy in waste treatment – in short, all energy from ‘cradle to grave’. Since then, Asaleo Care have used the EPDs as a basis for several comparative Life Cycle Analysis studies to understand the climate-related impacts of their procurement policies, new product development and product end-of-life initiatives.  For example, Asaleo Care are the first in the industry to make a Tropical Peatland Free Commitment and apply it to their fibre sourcing policy in direct response to the climate change impact of forestry plantations on drained tropical peatlands.