TENA carbon footprint progress: Reducing our impact since 2008

Packshots of TENA Silhouette Underwear, TENA Discreet Pad and TENA ProSkin Comfort

High-performance products. Reduced environmental impact.

At TENA, we’re continually improving: innovating smarter designs, finding superior materials, developing new solutions to reduce waste, and making our energy use cleaner and more efficient. Thanks to these efforts, we’ve reduced the carbon footprint of our products by 21-43% since 2008 – crucial steps towards our ambitious goal of cutting it in half in Europe by 2030. Here are just a few of the launches that stand out across the range.

Reducing impact. Step by step.

See a snapshot of our recent progress: better materials, smarter designs, and purchased certified renewable electricity.

TENA Flex -22%

New product sizes optimising the use of resources and improved materials.

TENA Pads and Liners -43%

Continuously making thinner and more comfortable products and using new materials or improved materials. Reducing plastic packaging in products such as TENA Lights Sensitive Pads, which is now in paper packaging.

TENA Comfort -21%

Optimising materials such as breathable back sheet and using improved materials while making thinner, more comfortable products.

TENA Men -26%

Optimising product use by offering more sizes, making thinner products and improved wrapping solutions.

TENA Pants and Underwear -41%

Thinner products and improved production design.

TENA Slip -32%

Improved materials and product design, thinner, more comfortable products.

TENA Bed -24%

Optimising the assortment and less packaging.

What is carbon footprint and why is it important?

To be a part of the solution, it helps two know just how much you're a part of the problem. This is where the idea of a carbon footprint comes in. Here’s a quick look at what it is and how it works. 

A bird’s-eye view of a forest with two clearings in the shape of footprints

What is carbon footprint?

Icons of industry, travel, construction, energy, etcetera, superimposed over a bird’s eye view of a forest.

It’s a handy measurement of the total impact that a person or company or product has on the climate.

A middle-aged woman getting on a bike looks back at her shadow, which is in the shape of a footprint.

Your personal carbon footprint includes the greenhouse gases emitted through all your activities across the year.

The wing of an airliner against a blue sky.

That includes the trips you take, the electricity you use, the products you consume, and more.

Icons representing the life cycle stages of a TENA product, against a blue sky.

Similarly, the carbon footprint of a TENA product is the total emissions it produces throughout its life cycle.

Wait, how can a gas have weight?

Colourful balloons floating in a blue sky.

It’s because all matter has weight, even gas. A helium balloon isn't weightless. It floats because it weighs less than the surrounding air.

To picture one tonne of pure CO2 in its gaseous form, imagine a ball that is 10 meters wide and high.

A man walks along a sunny beach toward distant rocks and cliffs.

The maximum sustainable limit for each person on earth is about 2 tonnes. In Europe the average annual carbon footprint is about 8 tonnes*.

Footprints in the sand on a sunlit beach.

That’s why measuring our carbon footprint is so important: it lets us see the progress we’re making toward a better future.

^{* Diana Ivanova & Richard Wood, "Top 1% of EU households have carbon footprints 22 times larger than climate targets allow," The Conversation, August 27, 2020, https://theconversation.com/top-1-of-eu-households-have-carbon-footprints-22-times-larger-than-climate-targets-allow-142357.}