Soap Aid with Woollahra Group

Published on Dec. 22, 2025
5 min

Sodexo Australia has joined forces with Soap Aid and the Woollahra Group, a 100% Aboriginal-owned business specialising in the manufacture and distribution of cleaning, janitorial, and hygiene products, to launch the Soap Aid Camp to Community Programme.

The Landscape

Access to basic hygiene products, especially soap, remains a critical challenge for vulnerable communities. Globally, inadequate hygiene contributes to thousands of preventable deaths each day.

Here in Australia, the Good360 2024–25 findings reveal that over 4 million Australians are experiencing hygiene poverty, with many still worried they won’t be able to afford essential hygiene items in the near future.

Despite this rising need, business donations of hygiene products have declined by 43%, leaving community organisation's struggling to support people facing continued cost of living pressures. Soap, one of the simplest, most effective tools for preventing illness, is often the item people go without.

Meanwhile, millions of usable bars of soap end up in landfill. By recycling and redistributing this soap to community groups, we can strengthen hygiene access, improve health outcomes, and restore dignity for people doing it tough.

Partnership in action

The partnership shares Soap Aid’s values and is committed to generating tangible social outcomes for Indigenous communities nationwide.

Traditionally, Soap Aid’s efforts focused on hotels as their primary source of waste soap. By partnering with Sodexo, which operates across more than 100 Energy and Resources sites in Australia, on and offshore, the programme further expands its impact to remote and regional communities.

This partnership serves as a blueprint for scaling soap recycling efforts across the country, ensuring recycled soap and hygiene resources reach those who need them most.

By utilising Woollahra Group’s expertise to distribute the recycled Healthy Hands soap bars from Sodexo's remote Fly-In, Fly-Out (FIFO) accommodation facilities, we are enhancing sanitation standards while strengthening meaningful partnerships with Indigenous businesses.

Through our partnership with Soap Aid, Sodexo Australia is helping ensure essential soap reaches the communities that need it most, reducing waste, supporting community organisations, and contributing to healthier, more resilient communities

Results

The outcome? 38,970 newly crafted soap bars.

Here’s what these numbers truly represent:

3247 children provided with lifechanging hygiene supplies and hygiene education, with 1429 lives statistically saved due to improved hygiene practices.
So far, we’ve saved 5.62 tCO2e from entering the atmosphere. This is equivalent to 2380 litres of fuel saved or about 32,598 kilometres not driven on the road.

The pilot of the Soap Aid Camp to Community programme launched at a single Sodexo-operated site and delivered incredible results within its first few months. Over 3897 kilograms of soap were collected for recycling.

With the growth of Soap Aid’s operations fuelled by this partnership, there is now potential to extend its workforce.

Woollahra Group’s involvement as a 100% Indigenous-owned partner creates an exciting pathway for economic empowerment of Indigenous people.

For Woollahra Group, Sodexo has become a critical partner in driving their mission forward. As their largest client, Sodexo’s support has enabled Woollahra Group to expand their operations and amplify their reach, creating valuable opportunities for economic empowerment within Indigenous communities

Looking ahead, Sodexo aims to expand this initiative to additional locations around the country, further amplifying its impact across regional and remote Australia.

Sodexo’s RAP Journey

Sodexo’s reconciliation journey began in 2011, evolving into a deep-seated commitment to creating lasting, positive change. With our 2025-2028 Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan, we are focused on mainstreaming reconciliation by embedding it into our culture, operations, and daily decisions across Australia.

In the last four years alone, we’ve spent over $100 million with more than 50 Indigenous-owned businesses, reinforcing our dedication to supplier diversity and economic empowerment.

Our focus goes beyond numbers - we strive to build lasting partnerships with Indigenous businesses and vendors, creating a ripple effect of positive economic outcomes for communities across Australia.

To deliver on our commitments, we actively prioritise cultural learning, Indigenous recruitment and career
development, community engagement, and nurturing partnerships with Indigenous businesses. Learn more about our RAP here.