Q&A: P&G’s Tastad outlines It’s Our Home initiative
In mid-April, Procter & Gamble rolled out a new effort, It’s Our Home, focused on helping its consumers turn their intentions about living more sustainably into actions. The initiative includes more communication about sustainability, as well as revised product formulations and packaging that can be refilled or recycled more easily. Drug Store News spoke with Carolyn Tastad, P&G’s group president of North America, about the It’s Our Home initiative and how the company is using its reach, innovation and expertise to make sustainable actions accessible to consumers.
Drug Store News: Can you tell us a bit about P&G’s new It’s Our Home initiative?Carolyn Tastad: Most of us want to do more to protect the planet, but we’re not always sure where to start. Through It’s Our Home, P&G and our brands are committing to use our voice, reach, innovation and expertise to make sustainability irresistible for consumers because we know that small actions at home can make a world of difference for our planet.
More than 70% of consumers want to do more to be sustainable at home, but 54% don’t make environmentally conscious choices as often as they’d like, and “not knowing how” is the biggest barrier. We can close this intention-to-action gap by making our products more sustainable and by inspiring simple habit changes. We’ve published tips and ideas at pggoodeveryday.com, which is our new consumer rewards program powered by P&G’s trusted brands. When consumers engage with P&G Good Everyday, they earn points that can be redeemed for rewards. As they earn, P&G makes donations to causes consumers care about. Through their actions on P&G Good Everyday, people can support environmental causes and other well-known P&G impact programs, such as Tide Loads of Hope and Children’s Safe Drinking Water.
DSN: Why is it important for P&G to help play a role in bridging consumers’ intention-to-action gap, and how is the company uniquely suited to do this?
CT: Consumers, stakeholders at large and our own employees expect companies to be a force for good and take action on issues that are important to them. P&G touches 5 billion consumers a day, which means we have a responsibility to help protect the planet and an opportunity to raise awareness, so that consumers can take action as well.
P&G’s sustainability efforts go beyond consumer use. Over the past 10 years, P&G has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, reached zero manufacturing waste to landfill across all sites globally and doubled the use of recycled resin in its plastic packaging. Our 2030 goals include purchasing 100% renewable electricity, improving finished product transportation emissions efficiency by 50%, making 100% of packaging recyclable or reusable, and reducing virgin petroleum plastic packaging by 50%.
DSN: What are some of the ways you’re leveraging P&G’s well-known brands within It’s Our Home to help consumers take steps toward living more sustainably?
CT: We know consumers expect the brands they buy to help them live a more sustainable lifestyle. We also know they don’t want to compromise — consumers want both sustainability benefits and superior product performance, with no tradeoffs. Our goal is to continue to do both — here are some examples:
- Tide is formulated to get clothes clean in cold water — and turning to cold also saves energy and money;
- Dawn Powerwash Dish Spray creates spray-activated suds without water to get dishes clean, so there’s no need to use the faucet until the final rinse;
- Cascade encourages families to use the dishwasher more frequently with its “Do It Every Night” campaign. A running sink can use up to 4 gallons of water every two minutes while most newer dishwashers use less than 4 gallons per cycle. So consumers can save up to 100 gallons a week by skipping the pre-rinse when using their dishwashers.
This decade represents a critical window to accelerate progress on sustainability, and meaningful change starts at home. P&G and our brands will continue to reduce our impact and help people be more sustainable to protect our planet — our shared home — for generations to come.