P&G | Seeking Sustainability | ACS Industry Matters - American Chemical Society (2024)

By: Patrick Masscheleyn
Senior Vice President, Research & Development
Global Product Stewardship: Safety-Sustainability-Regulatory-Technical Relations
Procter & Gamble

P&G | Seeking Sustainability | ACS Industry Matters - American Chemical Society (1)

Patrick Masscheleyn, Senior Vice President, Research & Development, Global Product Stewardship: Safety-Sustainability-Regulatory-Technical Relations, Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble (P&G) consumer products are used by over five billion people each day around the world. As people know P&G through its brands, P&G’s environmental sustainability program – Ambition 2020– represents a deliberate focus on elevating the role P&G brands and innovation can play in driving positive environmental impacts while providing superior product performance.

Tide Laundry Detergent Zeroes in on Environmental Sustainability

As America’s number one laundry detergent, more than 40 million families in the U.S. rely on Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) Tide (www.Tide.com) laundry detergent for their laundry care needs. With a dedicated consumer base of this size, Tide has the unique opportunity and responsibility to implement policies and develop innovations that can drive significant, positive environmental impact.

For P&G and Tide, our environmental sustainability goals transcend manufacturing and production and extend throughout the product’s lifecycle. The environmental sustainability goals include providing further transparency around our ingredient innovation and safety science, as well as 2030 targets to reduce water usage at our Tide manufacturing plants by 40%, to use 100% recyclable packaging and a 50% virgin plastic reduction in the making of Tide Liquid bottles.

100% of the electricity used in Tide manufacturing plants are offset by renewable energy from the Tyler Bluff, Texas, wind farm. We are now focusing our efforts on further reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) throughout our supply chain, and building partnerships with our suppliers and retailers to optimize transportation of our products, such as reducing the number of trucks on the roads.

Tide Carbon Footprint

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As we looked across the energy use and GHG emissions for each lifecycle phase, we realized the single greatest opportunity we had to reduce emissions was associated with the consumer use phase of our laundry detergents. The majority (>60%) of GHG emissions generated in the lifecycle of laundry detergent occurs in the energy use required to heat the water in laundry machines. The Life Cycle Analysis study further demonstrated that if we could get consumers to wash in cold water and other low energy cycles, we could help enable a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Importance of Washing With the Cold Setting

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Based on these findings, Tide is committed to establishing cold water washing as the industry standard. To help achieve this, Tide is focusing on innovation for superior cleaning using less energy. Working with supply chain partners, P&G scientists are developing surfactant and enzyme systems that deliver outstanding performance in cold water cycles. This is a critical focus, as we know that consumers will only adopt the habit change of washing in cold if the laundry detergent they are using delivers the cleaning performance they expect. Leveraging the Tide Brand voice in communication and advertising, we are informing consumers of the environmental benefit of increasing the number of cold washing loads. To encourage washing in cold, Tide campaigns stress multiple benefits, including saving energy, saving money, clothing longevity, and in the case of “quick and cold” – saving time.

P&G | Seeking Sustainability | ACS Industry Matters - American Chemical Society (4)

After years of sustained effort, we have seen the percentage of cold machine-washing loads in the US increase to 48% of loads, and we are working to increase this significantly over the coming decade to eliminate millions of metric tons of CO2 annually.

Ambition 2030 (https://us.pg.com/environmental-sustainability/); our environmental sustainability program, represents a deliberate focus on elevating the role our brands and innovation can play in driving positive environmental impacts while providing superior product performance. As we undertake this grand challenge, we do so by leveraging a strong foundation of ingredient, product and packaging stewardship to help identify where and how we can have the greatest impact that meaningfully contributes to societal challenges in the Brands key environmental impact area.

Across P&G’s portfolio, leading brands like Tide are supporting Ambition 2030 to drive positive environmental and societal impacts. As individual brands develop and activate sustainability action plans, science and data continue to guide our efforts and serve as the foundation upon which we work. While we still have much to learn and much to do, we draw both confidence and inspiration from our Tide laundry case study as a pragmatic example of the power of brands and innovation to drive positive impact.

This article has been edited for length and clarity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of their employer or the American Chemical Society.

Copyright 2022 American Chemical Society (All Rights Reserved)

Related Tags: Sustainability Consumer Products

P&G | Seeking Sustainability | ACS Industry Matters - American Chemical Society (2024)

FAQs

What are the sustainability issues of P&G? ›

P&G's primary areas of weakness are its environmental performance, particularly its use of palm oil and synthetic chemicals, and its governance performance, particularly its handling of tax issues.

What are the goals of P&G sustainability? ›

P&G's ambition is to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our supply chain and operations – from raw material to retailer – by 2040. Our climate journey began over a decade ago with goals at our own manufacturing facilities.

What is the sustainable development of P&G? ›

In September 2021, P&G set a new ambition to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its operations and supply chain, from raw material to retailer. P&G also shared a Climate Transition Action Plan which outlines a comprehensive approach to accelerating climate action and the key challenges ahead.

What is the goal of P&G 2030? ›

100% of our packaging will be recyclable or reusable. We will build even greater trust through transparency, ingredient innovation, and sharing our safety science. We will reduce our footprint, strive for circular solutions and be carbon neutral for the decade. We will protect and enhance the forests we depend upon.

What is the controversy with P&G? ›

For years, many groups have flagged that P&G's pulp and palm oil suppliers are tied to forced labor, human rights violations, intact forest destruction, degrading threatened species habitat and more.

What are the ethical issues with P&G? ›

P&G has been widely criticized for the company's use of palm oil and palm kernel oil suppliers that fuel the deforestation of tropical rainforests. In both cases, the extraction of resources releases carbon stored in forest and peatland ecosystems into the atmosphere.

Who is the sustainability leader at Procter and Gamble? ›

Virginie Helias, Chief Sustainability Officer, Procter & Gamble.

What are the pillars of sustainability with P? ›

The social pillar, or 'people,' emphasizes fair business practices for employees and the community. The environmental pillar, 'planet,' encourages responsible use of resources to protect the environment. The economic pillar, 'profit,' involves creating economic value that also considers environmental and social costs.

Are P&G products environmentally friendly? ›

That's why P&G is setting the industry standard for superior packaging design — products that are both sustainable and accessible. Our Lenor team has created an environmentally guiltfree packaging alternative while providing a superior consumer experience.

What is the environmental policy of P&G? ›

At P&G, we want to help build a water positive future that can sustain people and nature, now and for generations to come. Our comprehensive strategy includes reducing water in our operations, restoring water in water-stressed areas, and responding to water challenges through innovation and partnerships.

What is the scope 3 goal of P&G? ›

P&G has an aggressive Scope 3 reduction target, aligned to the Science Based Targets Initiative's guidance. We are committed to reducing our supply chain GHG emissions by 40 percent per unit of production by 2030, with no absolute CO2 increase, and our Fabric Care division is looking to lead this effort.

What is P&G's global goal on waste? ›

Since 2007, P&G plants around the world have been on a mission to achieve zero manufacturing waste to landfill. In 2017, we set our sights on making this true for 100% of our manufacturing sites and in 2020 we achieved it.

What are the challenges of P&G? ›

Big challenges

P&G faced more than its fair share of challenges during the quarter, and management outlined a few of the biggest, including major shipping disruptions in Brazil, a sharp economic contraction in Saudi Arabia, and soaring inflation in Egypt and Nigeria.

What are the threats to P&G? ›

Threats. Intense Competition and Market Saturation: The consumer goods industry is highly competitive, with PG facing competition from both global brands and local players. Market saturation in certain segments could lead to price wars and margin compression, challenging PG's profitability and market share.

What are some of the issues facing sustainability? ›

Our increasing and inefficient use of resources has knock-on effects including climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution, poor health and poverty. These issues are interlinked and in turn often exacerbate each other.

What are 3 areas in which sustainability is an issue? ›

Sustainability is an essential part of facing current and future global challenges, not only those related to the environment.

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