P & G : A CONGLOMERATE CONUNDRUM ?

“ I saw we had a great team of sustainability scientists but they lacked a real connection with the business , so the job was to breach the business and science gap and embed sustainability into the company . Why are we doing this ? What is the business case ?

“ Once I answered the why I then move onto the how . The how begins with evaluating the impact of your business – what is your life cycle ? Then it is about embedding sustainability into the business process and brand message , which is one of the more difficult parts of the challenge .”

– Virginie Helias , Global Sustainability Director at Proctor and Gamble ( P & G )

Febreze A perfect example of this conundrum is Febreze , one of the leading brands of air fresheners . While the brand is all about transforming air quality and odours , by far the largest impact of the product environmentally is its packaging . Alignment of the two presented a difficult challenge , but one Helias and her team overcame .

She adds : “ We spent a long time trading ideas and came up with the idea of ‘ leaving nothing behind but fresh air ’ – you address the packaging because you don ’ t want anything to go to landfill , and you also address air quality and pollution as you want to have Febreze manufactured in plants using clean energy . All of a sudden there are many ways the brand and sustainable impact can work together .”

This concept has translated into sustainable processes on the ground . P & G has partnered with EDF to build a 100MW wind farm in Texas to power

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