This article is sponsored by Procter & Gamble.
The Paris Agreement and subsequent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports have left no doubt that global emissions must peak and decline significantly before 2030 if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change. This is a mammoth task, and one we must all partake in and cooperate on to achieve.
P&G is on a mission to decarbonize laundry at every step, from formulating the product to consumer in use. As part of this, our Fabric Care division is leading P&G in our commitment to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 65 percent, and Scope 3 emissions by 40 percent by 2030, with the ultimate target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sourcing to shelf by 2040. But we can’t achieve these ambitions alone — partnership and collaboration across the value chain will be imperative. Here are learnings we have gathered over decades of forming and maintaining partnerships.
1. Partnering drives meaningful consumer behavioral change
Most of laundry’s carbon emissions are generated when consumers wash their clothes, primarily by the energy required to heat the water, according to Life Cycle Assessments conducted by our Tide and Ariel brands. These emissions fall into the category of Downstream Scope 3, which means we do not have direct control over them. Encouraging consumers to use colder wash cycles is a key component of our Climate Transition Action Plan.
Our approach to convincing consumers to wash in cold begins with the creation of effective products that clean impeccably in colder temperatures, which avoid the need for "compensating behaviors" such as pre-treating, pre-rinsing or rewashing. We also collaborate closely with appliance manufacturers to co-design low resource, cold and quick cycles and to ensure the benefits of cold washing are clearly communicated in the manuals for new machines.
But meaningful behavior change can only be achieved through increased consumer awareness and motivation. That’s why we’re aiming to initiate a global "cold wash movement," making cold wash the next broadly adopted eco-habit, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund / World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Hanes and the National Football League (NFL), among others.
In the U.S., the Tide-WWF partnership has unlocked new insights into behavioral tipping points and the science of habit change, identifying an ecosystem of levers that must be pulled to drive behavior change in the laundry room. Tide also teamed up with a Canadian retailer to donate 50 cents from every Tide PODS pack sold at the participating retailer in April to help WWF-Canada fight climate change with nature-based solutions.
In Germany, Ariel and WWF have launched a three-year partnership with the common goal to decrease the average wash temperature in the country by 3 degrees over three years. Supported by scientific insights from the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) — a think and do tank specializing in behavioral approaches for sustainable lifestyles — we developed the campaign called #WirDrehenRunter (We Turn Down) to drive awareness and spark action towards colder washing. The campaign kicked off last autumn with a pop-up "cold wash launderette" in Hamburg.
As part of our NFL partnership, Tide convinced half of the teams to wash 1 million pounds of football kit for a year on cold settings, while inspiring 80 million households of NFL fans to join the cold movement and take the #TurnToCold challenge during the 2021 football season.
Tide also collaborated with Hanes, a leading apparel brand in the U.S., to add a "wash in cold" call-to-action on Hanes packaging along with samples and coupons for Tide PODS. Through these partnerships, we are exploring and activating pathways to maximize consumer engagement, promoting the benefits that cold water washing has on laundry’s carbon impact.
2. Unexpected partners push the limits of discovery
Pushing the limits of innovation through partnerships can accelerate sustainable solutions to climate change. Selecting the best possible people and organizations to work with is fundamental to achieving measurable impact. Finding and explorin
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