Procter & Gamble Accelerates Action on Climate Change Toward Net Zero GHG Emissions by 2040
Procter & Gamble (P&G) has set a new ambition to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its operations and supply chain, from raw material to retailer, by 2040 as well as interim 2030 goals to make meaningful progress this decade.
The climate crisis affects every home and family, everywhere in the world. The majority of consumers globally now want brands they buy to help them live a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, and the latest science has made it clear that decisive action must be taken to avoid the most significant impacts of climate change. “We are fully committed to use P&G’s innovation and ingenuity to unlock new solutions to address climate change,” said David S. Taylor, Chairman, P&G President and Chief Executive Officer. “The task ahead of us is urgent, difficult and much bigger than any single company or country. P&G is tackling these challenges head-on by reducing our footprint and leveraging our scale to foster unprecedented collaboration across our value chain.” P&G’s actions on climate began over a decade ago. Its science-based plan to net zero will prioritize cutting most of emissions across its operations and supply chain, from raw material to retailer. For residual emissions in these categories that cannot be eliminated, P&G will use natural or technical solutions that remove and store carbon. P&G’s 2030 goals to pace progress toward net zero were submitted to The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) :
- Reducing emissions across operations by 50 percent;
- Reducing emissions across supply chain by 40 percent.(1)
P&G has joined the UN’s Race to Zero and Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaigns and is also sharing a new Climate Transition Action Plan, which outlines a comprehensive approach to accelerating climate action and the key challenges ahead. More perspective is available at https://us.pg.com/blogs/net-zero-closer-look/. P&G will continue to communicate successes and setbacks along the way so others can learn and advance collective progress. “We don’t have all of the answers on how to bring a net zero future into focus, but we will not let uncertainty hold us back,” said Virginie Helias, P&G Chief Sustainability Officer. “To achieve these goals, we will leverage existing solutions and seek transformative new ones that are not available in the marketplace today. This will require partnership across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors and involve every aspect of our business, from the very beginning of our products’ lifecycle to the very end.”
Acting with Urgency to Reduce Emissions
P&G top priority is to significantly reduce GHG emissions as quickly as possible with solutions that exist today.
- Reducing emissions across operations. From 2010 to 2020 P&G has reduced absolute emissions across global operations 52 percent through energy efficiency and renewable electricity. As P&G continues to reduce emissions, they are also advancing natural climate solutions to balance any remaining emissions from their operations that cannot be eliminated by 2030. These include new projects that help protect and restore forests and other ecosystems essential to the people and wildlife that call them home.
- Accelerating renewable electricity. P&G is nearing their 2030 goal of purchasing 100 percent renewable electricity by already purchasing 97 percent globally.
- Decarbonizing our supply chain and logistics. P&G’s supply chain and logistics emissions from raw material to retailer are about 10 times that of operations and they have set a goal to reduce emissions 40 percent2 by 2030. P&G is planning to increase transportation efficiency of outbound finished products 50% by 2030. Pampers is actively working with suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint and avoided an estimated one million metric tons of GHG from the production of its materials over the past five years. P&G established a new Product Supply Innovation Center (PSIC) in Kronberg, Germany as a hub for a network of local suppliers, tech companies, and top universities, developing solutions that are global and scalable to help decarbonize our supply chain.
Tackling Challenges by Inventing New Solutions
There are some operational emissions that cannot be eliminated yet and P&G teams are working hard to develop the next generation of low-carbon technologies and materials. P&G efforts in this area include:
- Leveraging renewable thermal energy. P&G use geothermal, solar, and renewable steam at some manufacturing sites, but continuing to reduce emissions will require more innovation.
- Advancing low-carbon technologies, materials, and packaging. To unlock new ways to decarbonize supply chain, P&G is partnering to advance innovation in materials derived from renewable, bio-based, or recycled carbon across brands including Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Ariel, Tide and Pampers.
- Exploring Ingredients made from captured CO2. Tide brand is working with Twelve, a Silicon Valley start-up, to explore their carbon capture technology to incorporate CO2 from emissions into ingredients that could be used across Tide.
Creating a Decarbonized Future Through Transformative Collaboration
P&G is going beyond their net zero ambition and doing more to make a collective impact – partnering with consumers to reduce GHG emissions from the use phase of products, creating alliances for carbon-efficient homes, and advocating for policy solutions to decarbonize energy infrastructure. Our efforts here include:
- Making sustainability effortless at home. P&G and its brands will continue to provide consumers with tools and information on how small actions at home can make a world of difference for the planet.
- Reducing 15 million tons of carbon through cold water washing, and doubling impact with an additional 30 million tons by 2030. P&G has leveraged innovation and sustained consumer education to help reduce the largest portion of their carbon footprint – the energy needed to heat water during product use. Since 2015, P&G brands Tide and Ariel have helped consumers increase their use of low-energy laundry cycles to avoid roughly 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Tide and Ariel continue to drive greater use of cold water washing through new education campaigns to help avoid an additional 30 million tons of carbon emissions by 2030 – more than ten times that of P&G’s yearly global operations.
- Creating the home of the future. P&G is advancing solutions to make everyday living more sustainable, with industry partners via the 50L Home Coalition. By helping people reduce hot water use without trade-offs, the Coalition is creating more efficient homes that can use 10 times less water than most use today. “Caring for our consumers and our planet is core to all of us at P&G,” Taylor added. “There is no action too small, and no vision too big, as we all work together to preserve our shared home for generations to come.”
For more detailed information about P&G’s commitments and progress, please see P&G’s Climate Transition Action Plan and “A Closer Look at Our Net Zero Commitment” blog post. To learn more about P&G’s ESG efforts, visit the ESG website or read the 2020 Citizenship Report.
P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Crest®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders ®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide ®, Vicks ®.
* 1 2 P&G Scope 3 2030 goals, submitted to SBTi, are as follows:
Reducing supply chain emissions from priority categories by 40 percent per unit of production by 2030. P&G priority categories account for over 90 percent of P&G’s supply chain emissions. Reducing global upstream finished product freight emissions intensity by 50 percent by 2030.
