Innovation & Technology

Tide Aiming to Decarbonize Laundry by Reducing Carbon, Plastic, Hot-Water Washing

Laundry giant’s 2030 Ambition goals center on turning consumers to cold water, exploring carbon capture and reducing virgin plastic — so that ‘every load of laundry does a load of good.’

Published 3 years ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Tide/Facebook

Today, Tide® announced its 2030 Ambition — a set of sustainability goals spanning the company’s full United States and Canadian supply chain, and focused on pressing social issues.

Tide is on a mission to decarbonize laundry at every step — from design, manufacturing and distribution to consumer use and end of life. In 2020, Tide reduced absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its direct manufacturing by more than 75 percent annually versus a decade ago, and set a new goal to cut GHG emissions in half at its direct manufacturing plants by 2030. The company is also launching a significant educational campaign in spring 2021 to convince North American consumers to shift to cold-water washing.

The goal for three out of four loads of laundry in the US and Canada to be washed in cold instead of hot by 2030 has the potential to reduce GHG emissions by 4.25 million metric tons (MT), which is equal to removing about one million cars from the road for a year. Over the decade (2020-2030), the total impact of this action would be a cumulative 27 million MT reduction in CO2.

Tide’s Ambition announcement builds on parent company Procter & Gamble’s own Ambition 2030 and stated path to climate neutrality.

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“The climate emergency we face needs urgent action from everyone. Today, Tide announces a series of goals to decrease its carbon footprint across its full value chain,” said Shailesh Jejurikar, CEO of Fabric and Home Care at P&G. “Tide’s ambition is to make cold-water washing the industry standard. Over two-thirds of the emissions in the laundry lifecycle come from washing clothes at home. Switching from hot to cold water reduces energy use by up to 90 percent and can save Americans up to $150 a year. Today we’re building on Tide’s 75 years of innovation to make every Tide load of laundry do a load of good.”

Carbon capture

Tide’s journey to decarbonize laundry includes a goal to reduce GHG emissions across the entire laundry lifecycle.

Today, Tide manufacturing plants use 100 percent renewable electricity. Tide will advance its GHG emissions-reduction goal through a pilot development project with Twelve — a Silicon Valley startup at the forefront of carbon transformation — to explore the company’s carbon-capture and utilization technology to incorporate CO2Made™ ingredients in the manufacturing of Tide (similar to what LanzaTech’s technology will now do for Coty).

Consumers’ role

With over two-thirds of all GHG emissions in the laundry lifecycle resulting from consumer use, Tide has set its sights on making cold-water washing the industry standard in the US and Canada — compared to the less than half of laundry loads washed on cold on average today.

“Ensuring a sustainable world for future generations requires leading brands to take a comprehensive approach to reducing their environmental impact while also taking action that goes beyond their own footprint,” said Sheila Bonini, SVP of Private Sector Engagement at World Wildlife Fund. “Brands have a unique opportunity to collaborate and communicate with millions of consumers at home, to help educate and motivate people to make simple changes that add up to meaningful change for our planet.”

In the coming weeks, Tide will partner with Hanes on a “turn to cold water” consumer education campaign — educating consumers on how cold-water washing saves money and energy. The campaign will feature a “wash in cold” call-to-action, along with Tide PODS samples and coupons, on packaging to help communicate that consumers can get a superior clean in cold with Tide — even when washing underwear, T-shirts and socks.

Cutting out plastic, water

Tide has also pledged to reduce its use of virgin plastic in packaging by half (vs. 2020 baseline) — through light-weighting, exploring packaging solutions such as the Eco-Box, and increasing use of post-consumer recycled content. Tide bottles use at least 25 percent post-consumer recycled content, but the brand’s ultimate goal is 100 percent recyclable packaging for all products by 2030.

Tide’s focus on environmental footprint extends to the product itself — with additional goals around ingredient safety and increasing water efficiency in both formula and wash cycle.

Community support

Tide remains committed to helping communities, particularly those affected by climate change. For fifteen years, its Tide Loads of Hope program has provided comfort and relief in the form of clean clothing to those displaced by natural disasters.

Since 2005, in partnership with Matthew 25: Ministries, Tide Loads of Hope has helped more than 90,000 families across the US — bringing a free, mobile laundromat to communities affected by natural disasters. In 2020, Tide grew the Loads of Hope program to ease the load of COVID-19 first responders, engaging Tide Cleaners locations to support over 100,000 COVID-19 first responder visits and cleaning nearly two million garments. Now, the brand aims to build on that by expanding the program tenfold by 2030.