The effects of the climate crisis on both people and planet are already being felt.
There is no time to waste, and we must act quickly to curb its progression.
Climate change may feel like a difficult reality to face, but small changes can
be made in our very own homes to reduce our carbon footprint.
Household chores, including laundry and dishwashing, have an impact on
emissions; and P&G is on a mission to support consumers in
reducing these. Targeting upstream Scope 3
emissions
needs to be a priority, and companies must understand how elements including
ingredients, manufacturing and packaging contribute to CO2 output. When using
laundry products in our homes, we are contributing to the largest portion of
those products’ carbon footprint. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies reveal
that on average in North America and Europe, almost 70 percent of
laundry’s carbon footprint happens when it’s being done at home. This is mainly
due to the heating of the water; it rises to 90 percent for dishwashing[^1].
This means that small changes to our cleaning routines — such as lowering the
washing temperature of a laundry load or dish cycle — can make a big difference
to reducing carbon emissions. But for people to turn down the temperature dial
or select eco-cycles, they must trust that products will still clean their
dishes and clothes with brilliant results. This is where the industry can play a
crucial role in decarbonization, as well as addressing the impact of its direct
emissions.
The role of a brand, therefore, is threefold:
1. Innovating for carbon-efficient formulas that clean in cold washes
The 50 Liter Home: Lessons from a multi-industry global collaboration
Join us as leaders from Electrolux and Procter & Gamble share insights and progress to date on ‘The 50 Liter Home’ — a partnership aimed at reducing water consumption in the home, while also generating awareness that leads to better lifestyle choices for sustainable water use — Wednesday, Oct. 16, at SB'24 San Diego.
Leading laundry and home care brands (such as P&G’s Tide, Ariel,
Cascade or Fairy) have a responsibility and ability to reduce Scope 3
upstream and downstream emissions by selecting or innovating low-carbon — or
even carbon-negative — ingredients that don’t compromise on cleaning in colder
temperatures.
It is crucial that a laundry detergent cleans well at 30°C or less; and
bioscience has helped unearth new ingredients — using enzymes — to create
formulas that work well at cold washes. Enzymes work as catalysts — for example,
to clean coral in the ocean. Researchers at Ariel developed these powerful
natural cleaners into an innovative biodegradable technology called Purezyme
— which is highly effective at removing sticky soils from fabrics, even in lower
wash temperatures. These formulas help reduce ‘compensating behaviors’ — such as
rewashing, over-dosing or using higher temperatures — that consumers resort to
when detergents do not perform well. Raising awareness for consumer action is
critical to reducing household emissions, but that must be reinforced with
confidence in the performance of the products they use.
2. Raising awareness of everyday sustainable actions
For brands, it’s not just about enabling consumers to embrace sustainable
behaviors when doing laundry or cleaning but helping them to understand the
benefits and giving them the confidence to do so. Some consumers might not be aware
of the impacts of using hot water in various cleaning activities; and it is up
to companies providing laundry and home care products to raise their awareness. The same goes for the amount of water used: When dishwashing,
consumers may be surprised to know that an energy-efficient dishwasher uses four
gallons of water per cycle — compared to handwashing dishes, which consumes four
gallons every two minutes.
To play this educational role, businesses can become more relatable to
consumers, clearly articulating the benefits of small day-to-day actions. Take
laundry, for example: Switching one load from hot to cold saves enough
electricity to power the average US home for over an
hour.
Lower temperatures have benefits for clothes, too — washing on a 20°C quick
cycle, as supposed to a standard 40°C cotton setting, helps clothes last up to
four times
longer.
Brands can make this even more compelling for consumers by connecting the
sustainability benefits to financial savings, as well — washing in
cold
saves up to 60 percent of the laundry portion on an annual energy bill. In North
America, this translates into saving $150 annually.
3. Valuing the role of partnerships in decarbonizing laundry and home care
Partnerships are crucial — the climate crisis cannot be solved alone, and
companies need to work together to develop new technologies and solutions. In
North America, Tide has partnered with World Wildlife Fund and Hanes to help
raise awareness of the emissions-reducing benefits of washing in cold with Tide.
Partnerships can also be used to improve product formulas themselves, further
helping to decarbonize laundry and home care. For example, a current
collaboration between Tide and Twelve (fka Opus
12)— a Silicon Valley-based startup at the forefront of carbon
transformation — is seeking to explore the use of carbon capture and utilization
technology
in the Tide product formula.
This can also be said for reducing the use of plastics within the supply chain.
P&G is working with partners such as PABOCO (“The Paper Bottle
Company”)
to reduce its use of plastics, finding solutions to hold liquid with fiber-based
packaging. The aim is to mitigate the use of petroleum-based plastics by 50
percent by 2030, while increasing the use of post-consumer recycled plastics
across all packaging. Incorporating natural ingredients helps in discovery of
alternative materials, and circular packaging innovations are being produced
from biobased material — such as Ariel PODs in a new cardboard ECOCLIC®
box that
P&G has just launched in the UK. An LCA of this new cardboard packaging
shows a reduction in carbon emissions vs. previous plastic packaging; it is made
with 70 percent+ recycled fibers, is
FSC-certified
and fully recyclable, so it can easily be added to the weekly household paper
collection.
P&G Fabric Care brands such as Tide and Ariel will help accelerate P&G’s
progress towards its ambitious targets — such as reducing the CO2 impact in the
home by 30 million metric tons by 2030. While the majority of the laundry carbon
footprint is from the in-use phase; brands must tackle the remaining 40 percent
of the impact as well. This includes a company’s sourcing of ingredients,
operations, transport and packaging methods. For example, moving long-haul
transportation to trains and boats cuts transport emissions, as they have a 75
percent smaller footprint than trucks. Fabric & Home Care brands will be a key
contributor towards P&G’s ambitious goal to achieve net-zero emissions from
cradle to shelf by 2040 with an interim goal of 40 percent reduction by 2030.
Mitigating the impacts of climate change might be a long journey, but great
progress is being made. We cannot stop now; and brands must continue to make
safe, well-performing and more sustainable products that people can trust to
deliver results.
[^1]: Simplified LCA breakdown, based on European average
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Procter & Gamble
Published Jun 30, 2022 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST