Procter & Gamble to Boost Conservation in Water-Stressed Areas

Procter & Gamble, commonly known as P&G, expanded its sustainability goals to include water conservation and sustainable packaging. P&G expects its manufacturing facilities to reduce water use by an added 20 percent per unit of production, with a focus on water conservation initiatives at facilities in water-stressed areas. P&G has four locations in California, a state experiencing its third straight year of drought. The drought is one of the worst on record.

Additionally, the company is on track to meet its goal to reduce packaging by 20 percent per unit of production by 2020. P&G has reduced its packaging by 4.5 percent percent per consumer use since 2010, according to its 2013 Sustainability Report. This progress has spurred the company to add more packaging goals. One of those goals is doubling the use of recycled resin in plastic packaging. The other is ensuring that 90 percent of its product packaging is recyclable or programs are in place to create the ability to recycle it.

The packaging redesigns for several P&G products shows has the company is working to reduce packaging. The redesigned packaging for Gillette Venus and Olay razors includes recycled plastic and is recyclable. It uses 26 percent less plastic in the manufacturing process. The packages are packed more densely in distribution which decreases carbon emissions during transportation. The Gillette blades and razors category switched its North America club packaging from plastic thermoform clamshells to a paperboard carton, which reduced 164,000 kilograms of packing material a year. The new carton also makes the product over 50 percent more efficient to ship and saves over $1 million in annual costs.

P&G is committed to water conservation

P&G sets water reduction reduction targets for each of its business units. Its 2013 Sustainability Report lists ways that the company invests in water conservation which range from working with suppliers to investigate breakthrough water recycling technologies to building new sites with water efficient technologies. Its plants are reducing water usage. One example is its Oxnard, California plant which reduced water use by almost 25 percent, resulting in an annual cost savings of over $900,000. P&G also educates consumers on ways they can reduce water use. One way consumers can reduce their water use is through the use of Downy Single Rinse. In one rinse it can provide the same amount of rinsing that a traditional three rinse process uses.

Beyond water conservation and packaging reduction

In addition to water conservation and packaging reduction, P&G has committed to other environmental goals. One of those goals is building for LEED certification for all new construction, including manufacturing plants, distribution centers and office buildings. Its Taicang Plant in China, opened in December 2012, is the first P&G site to achieve both LEED Gold certifications for administration buildings and Silver for manufacturing buildings. It is also first P&G site to use 100 percent wind electricity.

P&G has committed to reducing truck transportation by 20 percent per unit of production by 2020. Its distribution center in Colón, Panama reinvented the way it shipped by collapsing smaller product categories into common shipments and combining inventories of two or more countries. That new approach reduced lead times by 40 percent, lowered inventory by 11 percent, decreased containers in transit by 580, and reduced carbon emissions by 5.906 metric tons.

Image credit: P&G