The hidden climate economy: why Menstrual Health and Sanitation markets matter

Across countries, the menstrual health and sanitation markets are being reshaped by climate shocks, resource pressures, and environmental degradation—not in the future, but now. Although often overlooked in headlines, these markets are deeply linked to climate resilience, equity, and economic stability. Progress toward climate and environmental goals depends on building inclusive, resilient markets that can contribute meaningfully to climate adaptation, environmental protection, and equitable access to sanitation and menstrual health services and products.

Climate considerations in Menstrual Health value chains

The menstrual health (MH) value chain - all the steps, actors, and systems involved in ensuring that people who menstruate can manage menstruation safely, affordably and with dignity - is fundamentally climate-sensitive. At every stage — from raw materials to safe disposal — climate pressures influence supply, choice, quality of products, affordability, and environmental outcomes.

• Raw materials such as cotton, bamboo, pulp, and petrochemical derivatives are highly exposed to droughts, floods, and climate-driven agricultural volatility. This drives up costs and introduces uncertainty into global and local supply chains.
• Manufacturing and distribution depend on water, energy, and transport systems that are increasingly strained in climate-vulnerable regions. Heatwaves disrupt power; storms interrupt logistics; and water scarcity affects production processes.
• At use, climate conditions directly influence product safety and acceptability. For example, drought restricts the safe use of reusable products; flooding creates challenges for hygienic disposal.
• At end-of-life, single-use menstrual products add to plastic burdens and do not break down in water, adding to sewer blockages in municipal waste systems already under climate-pressure, for example during heavy rainfall or flooding—events that are becoming more frequent with climate change—waste systems can overflow, pushing these products into waterways or onto streets. 

However, the MH value chain also offers meaningful climate mitigation and adaptation opportunities, to name a few:

• Biobased or recycled materials can reduce dependence on climate-sensitive commodity supply chains.
• Reusable or hybrid products can reduce long-term waste volumes and emissions.
• Circular design and local manufacturing can strengthen resilience, shorten supply chains, and reduce carbon footprints.
• New waste pathways — from decentralized composting pilots to energy recovery solutions — offer mitigation and resource efficiency benefits.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution — just as women and girls need choice in menstrual products, markets require differentiated, context-responsive pathways. With the right evidence, standards, and financing, MH markets can shift from increasing vulnerability to becoming resilient, affordable, and climate-aligned. But this transition must be deliberate, to avoid greenwashing and ensure credible, long-term impact.

Climate Change in Sanitation value chains

Non-sewered sanitation — serving the majority of low-income households in LMICs — sits at the centre of climate vulnerability and climate opportunity. It is already widely recognized as more cost-effective and, in many contexts, more climate-appropriate than sewered systems. It is less water-intensive, more adaptable, and more feasible in rapidly growing urban and peri-urban areas. Yet it is also exposed to climate change.

• Containment systems crack, overflow, or collapse as floods, erosion, and saline intrusion intensify. Rising groundwater levels compromise pits and tanks, especially in informal settlements.
• Emptying and transport services struggle when climate shocks make roads inaccessible or when fuel prices spike during climate-related supply disruptions. When formal services break down, households are often forced back into unsafe disposal.
• Treatment facilities, especially small-scale or decentralized plants, face heat stress, energy failures, and storm damage — resulting in untreated sludge discharge, methane emissions, and contamination of waterways.

Non-sewered sanitation also holds some of the most powerful climate opportunities

• Resilient containment designs reduce long-term service interruptions.
• Decentralized transfer hubs and route optimization cut emissions and maintain service continuity during climate events.
• Modular, climate-resilient treatment systems withstand environmental shocks and expand access.
• Resource recovery — compost, biogas, treated water — offers clear mitigation benefits by reducing emissions, offsetting synthetic fertilizer, and reducing waste loads on ecosystems.

Handled well, non-sewered sanitation systems are adaptation assets, not liabilities — strengthening local resilience while contributing to national climate targets.

Slow onset climate change processes

While floods, storms, and heatwaves illustrate the acute stresses climate change places on menstrual health and sanitation systems, in many low- and middle-income countries the most pervasive impacts come from slow onset climate processes. Rising average temperatures, chronic water scarcity, gradual groundwater change, and climate-driven livelihood pressures steadily erode the affordability, reliability, and safety of services. These dynamics affect everyday product choice, the viability of reusable options, infrastructure lifespan, and households’ ability to pay — even in areas not exposed to extreme events. Strengthening markets for menstrual health and sanitation therefore requires adaptation not only to climate shocks, but to the cumulative, long-term climate conditions that increasingly define ‘normal’ operating environments.

Opportunities

• When viewed through a climate lens, both sanitation and menstrual health reveal powerful opportunities — and this is anchored in SHF’s market-development model. A shift toward greener sanitation and menstrual health markets requires products and systems that reduce waste, lower emissions, and minimize environmental impact across the entire value chain, requiring: strong policies, standards, and regulatory incentives for climate-aligned products and services
• Competitive, inclusive private sectors capable of delivering resilient and affordable solutions
• Circular and low-emission technologies
• Sustainable, blended, and domestic financing that drives scale and long-term affordability

Governments define the rules. Enterprises innovate and deliver. SHF catalyzes the system—by generating evidence, strengthening the enabling environment, supporting innovation, building pipelines and unlocking investment.

SHF’s approach to Climate, Circularity and Environment

SHF integrates climate resilience and circularity across all aspects of its sanitation and menstrual health market development work. SHF focuses on strengthening the markets that can deliver climate-aligned solutions at scale. A central priority for SHF is to strengthen the business case for greener sanitation and menstrual health markets for both public and private sectors. This ensures that policy decisions, enterprise development, and financing pathways are aligned—enabling a viable and equitable transition toward low-impact, climate-resilient products, services, and infrastructure. Through technical assistance and unlocking finance, SHF helps markets shift toward resilient containment, climate-smart service models, sustainable product categories, and scalable waste and resource-recovery solutions.

Climate and circularity are not optional add-ons; they are conditions for resilient, investable markets. Because these systems disproportionately serve women, girls, and low-income communities—those most affected by climate change—the benefits of climate-aligned sanitation and MH extend far beyond environmental outcomes. They reinforce gender equality, public health, productivity, and economic participation—core to climate justice and central to SHF’s mission.

Dietske Simons and Regina Gallego Piñero 

Dietske Simons is the Head of Impact at SHF. A leader in sustainable finance and impact management, she leverages her extensive background in development finance and international banking to drive strategy for climate-resilient and gender-inclusive growth.

Regina Gallego Piñero is an international climate change and environmental consultant with over two decades of experience across the UN system. She recently supported SHF in developing two policy papers that underpin its climate change strategic pillar.