The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, this week expanded its sustainability goals to continue creating value with consumer-preferred brands and products while conserving resources, protecting the environment, and improving social conditions for those who need it most. 

 

"We continue to improve the environmental sustainability of our products across all aspects of their life cycle – from manufacturing, packaging, and delivery through consumer use," said Martin Riant, P&G executive sponsor of sustainability and group president, Global Baby and Feminine & Family Care. "We are reducing the environmental footprint of our products for shoppers, our communities, and the company while still delivering the quality and performance people expect from P&G products." 

 

P&G is guided by 12 established environmental sustainability goals toward its vision of 100% renewable energy use, 100% renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging, and zero consumer and manufacturing waste going to landfills. Since establishing its goals in 2010, P&G has made considerable progress. There now are 70 zero-waste manufacturing sites; energy consumption, water use, carbon dioxide emissions, and truck transportation are all down significantly; use of renewable energy and the number of virgin-materials certifications are up substantially. P&G also has expanded its social sustainability work, touching and improving the lives of more than 50 million people each year through disaster relief and programs such as Children’s Safe Drinking Water and the Pampers UNICEF partnership.

 

This week, P&G added new goals for 2020, with emphasis on water conservation and product packaging.

 

Water conservation has been a long-standing P&G priority. Between 2002 and 2012, the company reduced water use at its manufacturing plants by more than 70% per unit of production. It now is expanding its commitments to include: 

• Reducing water used in its manufacturing facilities by an added 20% per unit of production, with a specific focus on conservation efforts at facilities located in water-stressed regions 
• Providing one billion people access to water-efficient products. 

Packaging sustainability is another key priority for P&G. The company is on track to reduce packaging by 20% per unit of production by 2020. Given this progress, P&G is raising the bar, committing to: 

• Doubling the use of recycled resin in plastic packaging
• Ensuring 90% of its product packaging is recyclable or that programs are in place to create the ability to recycle it. 

In addition to these two expanded goals, P&G is working across its supply chain to develop the capability by 2020 to replace top petroleum-derived raw materials with renewable materials, as cost and scale permit.