Agustina Mattioli has spent her entire career focusing on corporate social responsibility and sustainability for various multinational companies. Yet, when she had the opportunity to join Kimberly-Clark over two years ago, she was excited to lead the company’s sustainability efforts in its Latin American region alongside so many “inspiring female leaders in strategic positions across numerous functions.”

In her role as Kimberly-Clark's sustainability manager for Latin America, she works with the marketing and innovation teams to ensure the company’s trusted brands are helping make lives better for a diverse set of consumers across the region that spans from the southern tip of South America to as far north as Guatemala and Belize, representing more than 500 million people.

Mattioli is inspired by Kimberly-Clark's ambition to improve the lives of 1 billion people in underserved communities around the globe by 2030 – with the smallest environmental footprint.

“COVID-19 taught us a lot about the importance of health and hygiene. We were already working to reinforce hygiene habits such as handwashing through education and community initiatives, and we had to step up those efforts even more,” said Mattioli.

In Latin America, lack of access to sanitation and clean water is an urgent issue. Approximately 80 million people in Latin America do not have access to at least basic sanitation, and about 20 million people do not have access to safe water.

Kimberly-Clark launched the Toilets Change Lives program in 2014 in response to the global sanitation crisis, and since its launch in Latin America in 2015, the program has positively impacted over 1.3 million people in eight countries who now have access to clean water and sanitation. 

Mattioli said that laying the groundwork several years ago to focus on access to sanitation and hygiene education created critical partnerships that helped the team respond to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.   

“The pandemic brought challenges to everyone and every space, but thanks to our strategic partners, we were able to strengthen communities in our region.”

We are grateful for leaders like Mattioli who share our passion for caring for our consumers, customers, communities and our environment. Together with our NGO partners that include Water For People, Plan International and local start-ups, we will continue our work to create long-term systems change, because we know that improving access to clean water and sanitation in a community changes the life trajectory of everyone who lives in that community – for generations to come.