Employees, clients and visitors notice more than just cleanliness. They pay attention to how much care you invest in the spaces they use on a daily basis. A spotless, well-stocked restroom doesn’t just meet expectations; it reflects the values behind your brand. It signals that you care about people, their comfort and their environment.
Today, more than a functional need, hygiene is a cultural signal. It shapes how employees feel at work, how clients perceive your credibility, and how visitors evaluate your environmental and social responsibility.
What the numbers say
Recent research highlights the connection between hygiene and broader workplace experience:
- 43% of employees feel more comfortable in workplaces with strong hygiene standards.¹
- 42% say they wouldn’t work for a company whose values don’t align with their own.²
The message is clear: hygiene choices have a broader impact than just cleanliness. They influence trust, employee engagement, visitor impressions and even recruitment outcomes.
Beyond clean: real impact that resonates
In recent years, sustainability has remained a top priority in corporate action plans³. In fact, a study has shown that the market for sustainable products in the tissue and hygiene sector grew at an average annual rate of 8% between 2020 and 2023, outperforming non-sustainable products over the same period⁴.
Hygiene & sustainability quick scorecard
Want to know how your approach stacks up? Use this checklist.
- Tissue and towel products are made from recycled content
- Dispensers are touchless or designed to reduce overuse
- Products are backed by third-party certifications (e.g. FSC®, Green Seal®)
- Supplier shares sustainability or carbon footprint
- Hygiene-related complaints or feedback are tracked internally
Tip: If you left more than two boxes unchecked, there’s untapped potential to boost both workplace satisfaction and possibly your ESG performance.⁵
Industry benchmarks: where do you stand?
It’s one thing to talk about sustainability, but are practices across the board keeping up? Only 56%⁶ of suppliers (across all industries) provide emissions data to customers, and fewer than 25% of companies have integrated ESG criteria into their procurement processes⁷. This raises questions about whether hygiene strategies are advancing at the same pace as broader sustainability goals.
Three questions worth asking
If you're unsure where your hygiene measures stand, these questions can help spark the right conversations with your facilities or sustainability teams:
1
How do our hygiene purchases support or hinder our environmental goals?
2
Do our restrooms and shared spaces reflect our values to employees and visitors?
3
What metrics or feedback do we track to evaluate our hygiene measures?
What Cascades’ experts can bring to the table
At Cascades, sustainability is part of our DNA. Far from being a passing trend, it’s a core value that shapes our vision of hygiene. Building on our expertise in creating tissue paper made from recycled fibers and developing dispensers that help reduce waste, we put innovation at the service of more sustainable practices.
Our team works alongside distributors, facilities and sustainability leaders to:
- Improve user experience with clean, welcoming spaces
- Minimize waste through eco-designed product systems
- Align hygiene programs with corporate sustainability goals
Whether you're navigating sustainability targets or simply want to build a more welcoming, values-driven environment, Cascades PRO® is here to guide you every step of the way.
1 Top hygiene concerns in public spaces 2022, Poll by G&S commissioned by Cascades PRO® bit.ly/thcipp22
2 Randstad, Workers prioritize job security amid economic uncertainty but they won’t give up flexibility and a sense of belonging, 2023
3 Deloitte Accountant Survey, April 2022
4 Unlocking Sustainability Opportunities in Tissue and Hygiene
5 Environmental, social and governance issues
6 Carbon Direct, Carbon footprint data collection: Common challenges and how to solve them, April 2025 Carbon footprint data collection: Common challenges and how to solve them
7 EcoVadis, Upgrading Sustainable Procurement in the New Era of Risk, September 2024 Upgrading Sustainable Procurement in the New Era of Risk
