Sustainable is Good

Charmin MegaRoll Packaging A Subtle Green Step from P&G

Procter & Gamble's Lee Sauers Vice President of Global Sustainability was profiled last week in Fortune magazine.  Sauers provided a candid assessment of his company's sustainability efforts in packaging and other areas. 

Environmental concerns are something P&G tries to work into products and packaging design on their own accord not necessarily pushed by consumers.

Fueled by a desire to deliver quality products to consumers and an absolute focus on not forcing consumers to compromise on quality for environmental benefits P&G is making subtle adjustments to things like packaging in order to be greener. 

The company's Charmin Mega toilet paper campaign is a typical example of a product reformulation with some sustainable improvements.  Touting the fact the enhanced roll is equivalent to 4 single rolls in 1, P&G markets the bigger rolls to consumers by saying "Change the Roll Less Often." 

Sauers says consumers respond to this type of marketing and by selling the product this way P&G can save large amounts of packaging.  According to the company, if 1 million consumers switched from Regular Charmin to Mega it would save 85,000 gallons of diesel fuel and eliminate 500,000 pounds of trash and packaging.

P&G has made similar adjustments to popular product's packaging including its laundry detergents, diapers and toothpaste.  P&G is now shipping some of its Crest toothpaste in new containers that can be sold directly to consumers without the need for a box or additional packaging.  The new Crest packaging is durable enough to protect the product in transit and is able to withstand the tough retail environment.

Unilever, P&G Battle Over Sustainablity Claims

Interesting story from AdAge on the ongoing battle between consumer products giants Unilever and Procter & Gamble over which company is more ethically/socially responsible.

Readers of Sustainable is Good know this ongoing race for which company can claim they're more sustainable has touched the world of packaging.

Most notably the concentration of liquid laundry detergents.  Unilever's All Small & Mighty started the wave of mainstream downsizing followed shortly thereafter by P&G's Tide brand. 

Since the initial roll out of the new formulations and packaging the improvements have trickled down through both companies other brands.  The transition has been helped by a major commitment to the cause from the largest US retailer Wal-Mart.

As we reported Method really started the concentrated laundry detergent craze for mainstream products when it rolled out a concentrated detergent back in 2005 more than a year before Small & Mighty.  If Method's market share was anywhere near Unilever's or P&G's the impact of its forward thinking move would be viewed as more significant.

Packaging plays a critical role for many products and brands Unilever and P&G each produce.  Packaging provides companies with space to sell their product to consumers so while reducing packaging is a good environmental sell its a tough sell to brand managers of mainstream consumer products.

Gillette Fusion Excessive Packaging

Proctor & Gamble's Gillette Fusion razor received a dubious distinction when it was awarded the Golden Dump Award.  The Golden Dump Award is given annually by Environment Victoria the leading non-profit environmental organization in Australia's Victoria state.  The award recognizes a commonly available supermarket product with the most environmentally damaging packaging. 

Gillette Fusion is packaged in plastic, cardboard and paper and received the award for "gratuitous use of packaging."  Judges said the razor’s packaging “clearly demonstrates the unsustainable trend for encasing goods in far more packaging than is required to protect, efficiently transport and market the product’’.

The annual Dump awards expose the seven worst types of environmentally damaging packaging being sold on supermarket shelves.  DUMP is an acronym for Dangerous and Useless Materials in Packaging.  In addition to the Dump award Gillette Fusion also took home the Excessive Use of Material award.

Designer of Procter & Gamble's Swiffer Responds to Claims the Product isn't Sustainable

The designer of Swiffer, Gianfranco Zaccai takes a very direct matter of fact approach when he assesses an item in terms of sustainability. 

“We need to find the best thing to do that many people will do—because it’s enjoyable, beneficial, and engaging for them—and that is economically viable. Unfortunately, human beings have a difficult time seeing the relationship between their behavior and its effects if those effects are too distant in time or space. So people may pay lip service to more eco-friendly behavior—public transportation, for example—but unless that behavior provides short-term gratification, it is not likely to be sustainable,” said Zaccai

Zaccai is the president and CEO of Continuum, the company that designed the Swiffer for Procter & Gamble.  He was recently interviewed by Inhabitant in response to a piece they wrote questioning the sustainability of the Swiffer.

Zaccai raises some very interesting questions in terms of sustainability and mainstream consumers.  His basic argument is that if people won't use a product it doesn't matter how green or eco-friendly it is.  Sometimes its a balancing act for product designers and R&D departments to figure out what type of product a consumer will actually use. 

He said product designers need to focus on three main areas in their design.   (1) carefully analyze the real environmental impact of some activity—anything from taking a bath to generating power, (2) understand what human values and desires are involved in that activity, and (3) find the elegant solution that provides greater value—that means greater physical, emotional, and social satisfaction as well as greater economic benefit—while avoiding harm to the environment as much as possible.

{via} Inhabitant