Tarmac, the UK’s leading sustainable building materials and construction solutions business, has set up a new partnership that will provide organic, plastic-free period care products to employees across its business free of charge.
As part of a new agreement with Organic Mondays, a female-led premium feminine care provider, the company is making sustainably-sourced cotton pads, tampons and panty liners available to employees and visitors to all its UK sites.
Fifty per cent of the world’s population have periods, but there remains a stigma around menstruation in society, often causing embarrassment and inconvenience. The move hopes to break down barriers that can inhibit the way women work, creating a more inclusive and equitable workplace.
Organic Mondays’ products use sustainably-sourced organic cotton and are all hypoallergenic and fully plastic-free, which includes being packaged in biodegradable material. This means that they are a healthier and more environmentally-friendly choice compared to leading brands that can contain up to 90 per cent plastic.
Louise Houston, head of inclusion and diversity at Tarmac, said: “Periods shouldn’t be a barrier for women at work and this is an important step to be truly inclusive as an employer. With this partnership, we hope to make a positive impact to wellbeing at work and contribute to a more sustainable future.
“As we continue to introduce new initiatives and policies to help make progress on our inclusion and diversity journey, we’re creating a better business where all our people can thrive.”
Nancy Saddington, co-founder and CEO at Organic Mondays, said: “We launched Organic Mondays in 2019, to make healthier, more environmentally-friendly period products easily accessible to everyone, everywhere. We believe that period products are an essential, just like toilet paper.
“We are seeing huge progress in the conversation on menstrual health and period dignity, long may it continue, after all menstruation is a natural, healthy, biological fact. It’s great to see businesses like Tarmac committed to talking about it openly and providing free, sustainable products for employees.”
The new partnership builds on wider efforts from Tarmac to create a more inclusive environment for its employees, such as the introduction of a robust data-driven menopause policy and the launch of PPE designed specifically for pregnant people.
L-R are Tarmac’s Katie Barrett, inclusion and belonging manager, Kirsten Kobrin, category manager, and Khrishan Kumar, HR graduate.
