Within the first year of a five-year effort to reduce resource use, sell better products and help children around the world, Procter & Gamble says it is on course to meet its goals, partially building on past efforts.
By 2012, P&G aims to sell $20 billion worth of "sustainable innovation products;" reduce carbon dioxide emissions, energy use, water use and waste by 10 percent; reach 250 million children through its Live, Learn and Thrive program; and deliver 2 billion liters of clean water to children around the world. The company outlines its efforts in its latest, and 10th, global sustainability report.
P&G defines "sustainable innovation products" as items that provide more than 10 percent reduction in energy, water, transportation or material use, or substitution of renewable energy and materials, when compared to previous products or alternatives.
Since July 2007, the company has sold $2.05 billion worth of such products, including concentrated liquid laundry detergent (introduced last year in North America), concentrated powdered detergent in Europe, detergent that works in colder water and Crest Whitestrips redesigned to use less material. Some of the products were developed before the company set its sales goal.
On its way to reduce resources and waste, P&G has made the biggest gains with waste, cutting trash by 21 percent. The company also cut emissions 8 percent, water by 7 percent and energy by 6 percent, compared to July 2007 figures.
Through its Live, Learn and Thrive program, P&G has reached 60 million of the 250 million kids worldwide it hopes to impact with programs like building schools in rural areas of China, providing hygiene education in Mexico, funding preventative medical care in Peru and providing meals to hungry children in the U.S.
P&G's goal for its Children's Safe Drinking Water program is to distribute 2 billion liters of clean water by 2012, and it has so far delivered 430 million liters in developing nations like Uganda, Kenya and Malawi. |
