Bob McDonald, P&G President and CEO

Long term vision

Procter & Gamble (P&G) has just unveiled its new long-term environmental sustainability vision. The US consumer products giant aims at building tools to guide all sustainability decisions and goalsetting within the company.

The new vision includes four ambitious steps:

 Powering all P&G plants with 100% renewable energy,
 Using 100% renewable or recycled materials for all products and packaging produced by the company,
 Having zero consumer and manufacturing waste go to landfills,
 Designing products that delight consumers while maximizing the conservation of resources

Accelerating P&G’s commitment to environmental sustainability is a critical component of the Company’s ongoing growth strategy,” said Bob McDonald, P&G Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer.

New 10-year goals

In a first step, P&G is setting a series of 10-year sustainability goals. These shorter-term goals will help the company to “focus its efforts and incrementally improve its environmental performance,” so as to be progressively able to achieve the long-term sustainability vision.

This first set of sustainability goals will be delivered by 2020. They are in addition to the company’s existing 2012 goals. As with its current practice, P&G will report progress against these goals on an annual basis.

The company has already launched the implementation of important measures, including, the assessment of the environmental footprint of its main suppliers, which will eventually allow integrate this criteria in the selection process, or the replacement of oil-based plastic packaging by plant-based packaging sourced from entirely renewable materials.

WWF partnership

P&G also announced it has signed an international partnership agreement with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The environmentalist organisation participated in the elaboration of the group’s new sustainability vision. P&G hopes this partnership will help to solve the difficulties linked to sustainability efforts, the company may have to face in the future.