Author: sHq_LoGiNz

Originally published on Tork Press and News

Tork, an Essity brand and global leader in professional hygiene, brought together facilities leaders, designers, architects, policy makers, advocacy groups, NGOs, manufacturers, infection prevention experts, accessibility advocates and lived‑experience experts for a European roundtable on inclusive hygiene in public washrooms, held in Edinburgh, Scotland on 2 October 2025.

The discussion produced clear, actionable measures businesses and venues can implement now to remove hidden hygiene barriers for millions of users – and set out the commercial case for doing so.

The roundtable builds on the recent Tork insight survey, which found only one in five washrooms meet hygiene cleanliness expectations and 52% of people take negative action after a poor experience – from cutting visits short to leaving negative reviews – directly impacting business revenue and reputation. Participants stressed that “people are not the barrier; the environment is,” urging businesses to realise the opportunity to design washrooms for the inclusion of more people.

“Most people don’t really care about washrooms, they’re not top of the list, there are many other priorities. I think it’s necessary that more people start to care and that they really start to include washrooms in their priority list. Because they add value for a customer, for a visitor. And in the end that’s value for the business.” Mariëlle Romeijn, ONE HUNDRED Restrooms.

What good looks like – key takeaways for providers and designers:

Make “clean and safe” non‑negotiable 

• Prioritize cleanliness across all senses (sight, smell, sound).
• Reduce pathogen spread and anxiety by providing paper towels over noisy hand dryers, especially for immunosuppressed or sensory‑sensitive users.
• Specify easy‑to‑clean dispensers and fixtures with minimal seams to cut biofilm build‑up and cleaning time.

Design for all users, not typical users

• About 95% of those with cognitive or physical conditions do not use wheelchairs; skin sensitivities, arthritis, neurodiversity, anxiety and paruresis (shy bladder) are widespread and often invisible.
• Inclusive design means as many people as possible can use the washroom comfortably. Prioritise reachability and low operating force: soap, towel and flush activations must be usable by people with limited grip strength or dexterity – and correctly positioned.
• Ensure privacy: full‑height cubicles, reliable and easy to operate locks and, where possible, in‑cubicle basins and “silent” cubicles reduce stress and increase dignity.
• Provide period‑ and continence‑friendly features: free or easy‑access products; closed bins in every stall (including men’s); shelves and mirrors in‑stall; and ready access to basins. Poor provision drives user anxiety and facility misuse and blockages.

Standardize and install correctly 

• Guidance exists but inconsistent interpretation limits the on-site experience for users.
• Call for pan‑European minimum specifications, including placement heights and operating forces, plus simple illustrated install guides to remove ambiguity.

Include cleaners and operators in the brief

• Design to be cleanable: flat surfaces, simple pipework and stain‑resistant materials supported with color‑coded maintenance regimes.
• Recognize the role of cleaning teams as “comfort crew” with training, visible ownership and rapid‑repair SLAs (service level agreements). Culture and respect of employees drives positive outcomes.

Use data to lift standards 

• Employ traffic‑based, sensor‑driven maintenance (smart dispensers, visit counters, QR fault reporting) for cleaning‑on‑demand and faster repairs.
• Reinvest efficiencies to raise standards

Plan for families, carers and diverse needs 

• Provide fully enclosed cubicles with personal basins to enable carers, parents and anxious users to access facilities comfortably and with greater ease and confidence.
• Where space allows, add family rooms with dual‑height fixtures; consider adjustable‑height options. Publish information about washrooms at venues
• Share details (location, opening times, layout, features) on websites and apps so users can plan with confidence.

Jenny Turner, Corporate Communications Director, Professional Hygiene at Essity, commented:

“Inclusive hygiene in washrooms shouldn’t expose human conditions; it should ensure comfortable access for as many users as possible. The commercial and societal case is clear: when people feel comfortable, they stay longer, spend more and come back. Tork is embedding inclusive hygiene principles – from low‑force, easy‑to‑clean dispensers to data‑driven cleaning – so venues can deliver consistently clean, dignified and comfortable experiences,”

Participants from commercial real estate, retail, transport and hospitality agreed: washrooms are “a small focus but a big impact.” Clean, well-maintained environments support longer dwell time, increased food and beverage spend and greater employee satisfaction. In contrast, uncomfortable or poorly maintained washrooms can reduce revenue, discourage repeat visits and hinder return-to-office efforts.

Every day, people around the world face visible and invisible barriers to washroom hygiene – due to their individual abilities, needs or circumstances. Whether it’s cleaning standards or the physical setup, these mismatches can prevent comfortable access for many users. While the perfect washroom may be difficult to achieve, the roundtable discussion generated a range of practical actions that businesses can implement to improve revenue, reputation and employee wellbeing by removing barriers to hygiene for as many people as possible.

Learn more about how inclusive hygiene can improve your business: https://www.torkglobal.com/us/en/about/inclusive-hygiene

About Tork

The Tork brand offers professional hygiene products and services to customers worldwide ranging from restaurants and healthcare facilities to offices, schools and industries. Our products include dispensers, paper towels, toilet tissues, soap, napkins and wipers, but also software solutions for data-driven cleaning. Through expertise in hygiene, functional design and sustainability, Tork has become a market leader that supports customers to think ahead so they’re always ready for business. Tork is a global brand of Essity and a committed partner to customers in more than 110 countries. To keep up with the latest Tork news and innovations, please visit www.torkglobal.com/us/en/.

About Essity

Essity is a global, leading hygiene and health company. Every day, our products, solutions and services are used by a billion people around the world. Our purpose is to break barriers to well-being for the benefit of consumers, patients, caregivers, customers and society. Sales are conducted in approximately 150 countries under the leading global brands TENA and Tork, and other strong brands such as Actimove, Cutimed, JOBST, Knix, Leukoplast, Libero, Libresse, Lotus, Modibodi, Nosotras, Saba, Tempo, TOM Organic and Zewa. In 2024, Essity had net sales of approximately SEK 146bn (EUR 13bn) and employed 36,000 people. The company’s headquarters is located in Stockholm, Sweden and Essity is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. More information at essity.com.

As previously seen on the CSRHub blog.

Each month, our data partner Prime Directive Analytics (PDA) publishes insights from their proprietary “Democracy” signal — a dataset that explores how corporate political activity aligns with stated ESG and social responsibility goals.

In their latest piece, “The 67-Point Blind Spot,” PDA founder Jason Teed highlights a divergence between what companies publicly say about their values and how they act politically. The article explores this growing gap between corporate social statements and political engagement — a topic increasingly relevant to investors, consumers, and ESG professionals alike.

Read Jason’s full article: Here

About CSRHub

CSRHub offers the most comprehensive global set of expert consensus sustainability ratings, information, and tools. Clients use CSRHub’s decisive data platform for global benchmarking, supply and value chain risk assessment and compliance readiness solutions. Founded in 2007, CSRHub covers over 60,000 public and private companies, and provides ESG performance scores on 42,000 companies from 134 industries in 158 countries. Our Big Data platform uses algorithms to aggregate, normalize and weight ESG metrics from 1,000 sources to produce a strong consensus signal on corporate sustainability performance.

Interested in learning more about CSRHub?

As previously seen on the CSRHub blog.

Each month, our data partner Prime Directive Analytics (PDA) publishes insights from their proprietary “Democracy” signal — a dataset that explores how corporate political activity aligns with stated ESG and social responsibility goals.

In their latest piece, “The 67-Point Blind Spot,” PDA founder Jason Teed highlights a divergence between what companies publicly say about their values and how they act politically. The article explores this growing gap between corporate social statements and political engagement — a topic increasingly relevant to investors, consumers, and ESG professionals alike.

Read Jason’s full article: Here

About CSRHub

CSRHub offers the most comprehensive global set of expert consensus sustainability ratings, information, and tools. Clients use CSRHub’s decisive data platform for global benchmarking, supply and value chain risk assessment and compliance readiness solutions. Founded in 2007, CSRHub covers over 60,000 public and private companies, and provides ESG performance scores on 42,000 companies from 134 industries in 158 countries. Our Big Data platform uses algorithms to aggregate, normalize and weight ESG metrics from 1,000 sources to produce a strong consensus signal on corporate sustainability performance.

Interested in learning more about CSRHub?

Originally published by Mastercard

Abdul Karim Bangura arrived in Athens from Sierra Leone 14 years ago, armed with just a few words of Greek and determined to build a new life for himself in the Mediterranean capital.

But as he struggled to learn the language, he realized he had little hope of continuing the sales career he had started back home. He had to take low-paying jobs, first as a cleaner and then as an untrained kitchen assistant, to make ends meet.

Then he spotted a Facebook post from the nonprofit Odyssea offering free food industry training courses for people from marginalized communities. In Greece, two in five young people are unemployed, according to the organization, which works to bridge the gap between education and employment for those in need, including people with disabilities, the homeless, former drug users, and migrants like Bangura.

Spotting a promising opportunity, Bangura signed up for the program, known as ReStart by Mastercard, to get the qualifications needed to improve his job prospects.

After learning food safety and hygiene and cooking skills, Bangura became one of the 200 people to complete the ReStart program, set up by Odyssea, and began work at Kykloi by Priceless, Mastercard’s new restaurant in Athens’ vibrant Kerameikos district.

He’s now one of 12 ReStart graduates working as kitchen assistants and waiters at the restaurant, where Michelin-starred chef Pavlos Kiriakis’ menu offers a fresh take on sustainable, modern Mediterranean cuisine.

“I feel excited working alongside professional chefs,” Bangura says. “It’s been a great experience for me so far.”

Athens’ deep-rooted food culture made it the ideal place for Mastercard to open Kykloi by Priceless, its first restaurant in Greece, serving locally sourced dishes such as red sea bream with potato confit and calamari with the salty cured fish roe known as tarama. Like Mastercard’s other Priceless restaurants that dot the globe, Kykloi aims to connect with diners more deeply by offering unique multisensory experiences, including guest chef master classes and molecular mixology workshops. But Kykloi is Mastercard’s first purpose-driven restaurant.

The meaning of Kykloi — the Greek word for “circles” — is incorporated into the airy minimalist style created from natural materials to stand out in a city whose rich culinary heritage is celebrated everywhere from side-street souvlaki joints to sleek vaunted venues.

“For us, Kykloi symbolizes the circle of food,” says Loukia Chorafa, head of marketing and communications for Mastercard Greece, Cyprus and Malta. “From soil to plate, the table-sharing experience, the circle for people in ReStart finding a job — it’s the circle of life.”

But Kiriakis and the Priceless team wanted Kykloi to have an impact that would go beyond its food and design: to serve as a blueprint for restaurants to incorporate social inclusion and give people the skills they need to get ahead.

Because restaurants frequently struggle to get the trained, professional chefs, waiters and assistants they need, investing the time and effort to develop staff would also help them bridge the gap.

Since its opening in July, Kykloi — inspired by the circle theme of the Mastercard logo — has quickly become a favorite among Athenians and the many tourists who visit the city as much for its cuisine as for its ancient landmarks.

The early success of ReStart shows that the social inclusion program is a component that could easily be integrated into future Priceless restaurants in cities around the world and serve as an industry benchmark, Chorafa says.

So far, nearly all of the ReStart graduates — including migrants from 29 countries — have found jobs in Athens thanks to the technical skills, confidence and contacts they gleaned from the program. The next phase will look to engage young Greeks who face difficulties getting jobs due to factors such as disabilities or time spent in institutions.

For people like Bangura who’ve struggled to get ahead for years, signing up to ReStart and working at Kykloi has offered them the chance to thrive in the country they now call home, and finally square the circle.

“This will mean I have a better, more stable life here in Athens for me and my family,” he says.

Continue reading here.

Follow along Mastercard’s journey to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere.

Originally published by Mastercard

Abdul Karim Bangura arrived in Athens from Sierra Leone 14 years ago, armed with just a few words of Greek and determined to build a new life for himself in the Mediterranean capital.

But as he struggled to learn the language, he realized he had little hope of continuing the sales career he had started back home. He had to take low-paying jobs, first as a cleaner and then as an untrained kitchen assistant, to make ends meet.

Then he spotted a Facebook post from the nonprofit Odyssea offering free food industry training courses for people from marginalized communities. In Greece, two in five young people are unemployed, according to the organization, which works to bridge the gap between education and employment for those in need, including people with disabilities, the homeless, former drug users, and migrants like Bangura.

Spotting a promising opportunity, Bangura signed up for the program, known as ReStart by Mastercard, to get the qualifications needed to improve his job prospects.

After learning food safety and hygiene and cooking skills, Bangura became one of the 200 people to complete the ReStart program, set up by Odyssea, and began work at Kykloi by Priceless, Mastercard’s new restaurant in Athens’ vibrant Kerameikos district.

He’s now one of 12 ReStart graduates working as kitchen assistants and waiters at the restaurant, where Michelin-starred chef Pavlos Kiriakis’ menu offers a fresh take on sustainable, modern Mediterranean cuisine.

“I feel excited working alongside professional chefs,” Bangura says. “It’s been a great experience for me so far.”

Athens’ deep-rooted food culture made it the ideal place for Mastercard to open Kykloi by Priceless, its first restaurant in Greece, serving locally sourced dishes such as red sea bream with potato confit and calamari with the salty cured fish roe known as tarama. Like Mastercard’s other Priceless restaurants that dot the globe, Kykloi aims to connect with diners more deeply by offering unique multisensory experiences, including guest chef master classes and molecular mixology workshops. But Kykloi is Mastercard’s first purpose-driven restaurant.

The meaning of Kykloi — the Greek word for “circles” — is incorporated into the airy minimalist style created from natural materials to stand out in a city whose rich culinary heritage is celebrated everywhere from side-street souvlaki joints to sleek vaunted venues.

“For us, Kykloi symbolizes the circle of food,” says Loukia Chorafa, head of marketing and communications for Mastercard Greece, Cyprus and Malta. “From soil to plate, the table-sharing experience, the circle for people in ReStart finding a job — it’s the circle of life.”

But Kiriakis and the Priceless team wanted Kykloi to have an impact that would go beyond its food and design: to serve as a blueprint for restaurants to incorporate social inclusion and give people the skills they need to get ahead.

Because restaurants frequently struggle to get the trained, professional chefs, waiters and assistants they need, investing the time and effort to develop staff would also help them bridge the gap.

Since its opening in July, Kykloi — inspired by the circle theme of the Mastercard logo — has quickly become a favorite among Athenians and the many tourists who visit the city as much for its cuisine as for its ancient landmarks.

The early success of ReStart shows that the social inclusion program is a component that could easily be integrated into future Priceless restaurants in cities around the world and serve as an industry benchmark, Chorafa says.

So far, nearly all of the ReStart graduates — including migrants from 29 countries — have found jobs in Athens thanks to the technical skills, confidence and contacts they gleaned from the program. The next phase will look to engage young Greeks who face difficulties getting jobs due to factors such as disabilities or time spent in institutions.

For people like Bangura who’ve struggled to get ahead for years, signing up to ReStart and working at Kykloi has offered them the chance to thrive in the country they now call home, and finally square the circle.

“This will mean I have a better, more stable life here in Athens for me and my family,” he says.

Continue reading here.

Follow along Mastercard’s journey to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere.