Soap For Hope™ Awarded $120,000 by Dow’s Business Impact Fund

The Diversey Soap For Hope™ program has been selected to receive $120,000 from Dow’s 2023 Business Impact Fund.  The funds will support a program designed to recycle discarded soap and help reduce unemployment in local farming communities in South Africa

The worldwide Diversey Soap For Hope initiative began in 2013 to empower communities to improve hygiene while creating jobs and eliminating waste. Part of the Solenis global specialty chemical company, Diversey is a leading company for cleaning and hygiene solutions for industrial and institutional markets.

Soap For Hope will use the funds to partner with a nongovernmental organization in South Africa to recycle soap slivers into new soap bars, which will be distributed to local communities with poor hygiene access.

Soap slivers are reclaimed from participating Diversey hotel customers around the world. The slivers are transported to a local site, where community members are employed to reprocess it with an innovative yet simple cold-press method, which can be completed in under ten minutes and requires no electricity or running water.

Soap For Hope is one of seven initiatives selected for the 2023 award. Dow’s Business Impact Fund helps solve social challenges and advance sustainable solutions through multistakeholder collaboration. Founded in 2016, the Business Impact Fund brings together nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurs and Dow customers, partners and employees to tackle many of society’s biggest challenges. The selected projects this year address circularity and waste transformation initiatives, as well as climate protection, water conservation and biodiversity.

“We are thrilled to have our Soap For Hope program be a Dow Business Impact Fund recipient this year, recognizing the social and environmental benefits we are able to collectively deliver,” said Dr. Daniel Daggett, Vice President of Sustainability for Diversey. “The award will go a long way to grow our ‘Creating Shared Value’ programs with our customers, where we have a goal to improve the lives of one million people per year in the communities where we operate. It’s exciting to see the connection across the extended supply chain where our suppliers, ourselves, our customers and community members can collaborate to improve the environment and drive social benefits.”

For more information about Soap For Hope, visit www.diversey.com/en/sustainability/soap-for-hope.