Chief Sustainability Officer
With over 3 decades of experience at Procter & Gamble in Brand Management and Innovation, Virginie has a broad experience across multiple categories and global to local brand management expertise. Virginie has worked across several of P&G’s multi-billion dollar brands, including Pantene, Ariel/Tide, and Pampers, and has extensive international experience having been based in France, UK, Switzerland and the United States throughout her career. Since 2011, Virginie’s focus has been on sustainability and corporate citizenship, with a global remit covering all brands and business units, in all regions. Her mission was to embed sustainability into the innovation, brand-building and everyday business practices at P&G. In 2016, she was promoted to Vice President of Global Sustainability, in recognition of the work she has led to make sustainability a core business strategy, an innovation driver and a catalyst for a more resilient organisation. Even though Virginie recommended the creation of this new position, her vision has always been for the role to become obsolete, with sustainability embedded in everything P&G does as second nature. As she puts it: “Innovation and communication will not be conceived without sustainable groundings.”
VP, Sustainability
Jack has been with P&G for 26 years. During that time he has had a variety of assignments in the Health, Safety & Environment and External Relations functions. In his current role, he is responsible for coordinating P&G’s Environmental Sustainability efforts. Prior to joining P&G, Jack worked for the Federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration as an Industrial Hygiene Compliance Officer.
Senior Director, Nature & Biodiversity
Ashley Kuhn, PhD is Director of Responsible Sourcing for Global Beauty Purchases at P&G. A plant biologist by training, she leverages a decade of sustainability insights and experience across Regulatory, Environmental Safety, Sustainability, and Procurement to guide P&G business teams toward sustainable solutions. She’s enabled design and delivery of multiple new sustainability initiatives ranging from an employee waste program at P&G’s largest R&D technical facility to Beauty Care’s responsible sourcing program in her current role. A love of nature is the value-thread across her career and personal life. Along with her partner Dave, she acts as land steward to their 14 wooded acres named Lost Fossil Forest. Improving the health of the forest and venturing into agroforestry are personal focus areas.
Global Climate and Energy Leader
Steve Skarda is responsible for delivering P&G’s sustainability goals on energy. Skarda leads a team focused on a science based goal to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020 vs. 2010. To date, the team has improved energy productivity by more than 15% across 200 facilities worldwide saving P&G over $350 million in four years. The team has also announced projects that together will double their use of renewable energy. This supports P&G’s goal to power their facilities with 30% renewable energy by 2020 which is part of a larger vision to obtain 100% of P&G’s energy from renewable sources.
Highlights
PACT (Partnership for Carbon Transparency) — Launched its 2024 Implementation Program, with an expanded cohort of 25 companies, including CEF members BASF, Chevron, Procter & Gamble, Schneider Electric, and Unilever. The companies will work with their key suppliers to advance calculation and exchange of Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data, improving transparency to stakeholders and enabling targeted decarbonization of their value chains. (July 2024)
DOW / PROCTER & GAMBLE (P&G) — Announced a joint development agreement to create a new recycling technology to convert hard-to-recycle plastic packaging waste into recycled polyethylene, using a dissolution process. P&G anticipates using the new post-consumer plastic in its packaging. (May 2024)
International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS)— Launched by more than 35 cosmetics manufacturers and suppliers, industry associations and animal protection organizations, ICCS will support animal-free cosmetics and personal care product and ingredient innovation by funding rigorous, scientific evaluation of new animal-free safety assessment approaches. It will share the results of these evaluation activities with cosmetic and chemical regulators and fund education and training activities to help build confidence in animal-free safety assessment approaches. CEF members include BASF, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever. (Feb 2023)
Flue2Chem Project (Unilever, Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), and others) — Fifteen businesses, universities, and NGOs, spearheaded by Unilever and SCI, have started a two year, £5.4 million ($6.5 million) project in the UK aimed at converting industrial CO2 emissions into sustainable materials for use in consumer products. Along with producing a more sustainable feedstock for products, such as household cleaning materials, the project aims to demonstrate how the UK could reduce 15-20 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, through the reduction of imports of carbon containing feedstocks. The partners include businesses across the supply chain, and include CEF members Unilever, BASF, and Procter & Gamble. (Feb 2023)
Collective Action and Investment in Landscape Initiatives (The Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition of Action) — This new report advocates for corporate investment in production landscapes worldwide to combat commodity-driven deforestation, forest conversion, and degradation while promoting inclusion and improving the livelihoods of local communities. It shares insights from the experiences of the Coalition’s 21 manufacturer and retailer members, and calls for Coalition members and other companies to invest in initiatives in these landscapes. CEF members PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever are part of this coalition. (Nov 2022)
Incentives for Scope 3 supply chain decarbonization: accelerating implementation (WBCSD and PwC) — This new report pulls together insights on “decarbonization levers” presented in the past year, summarizing outcomes from WBCSD’s Incentivizing Supply Chain Decarbonization working group, which was set up to deepen the practical guidance shared and drive action on reducing Scope 3 emissions. Levers identified include: decarbonization criteria in procurement, beneficial terms, longer-term investments, mandatory carbon reporting, public recognition & co-branding, and engagement beyond tier 1 suppliers. CEF members in the working group include Unilever, Dow, Siemens, P&G, and Chevron. (Nov 2022)
More than 330 businesses and financial institutions from 52 countries, with combined revenues of over $1.5 trillion, urged world leaders to move beyond voluntary actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss in a new statement. The statement advocates for the leaders to adopt “mandatory requirements for all large businesses and financial institutions to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on nature by 2030.” CEF Members involved include BASF, Google, International Paper, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Schneider Electric, Tiffany & Co., Unilever, and WM. Businesses can sign the statement here. (Oct 2022)
Procter & Gamble agreed to disclose data on recruitment and retention rates by gender (globally) and by race or ethnicity (in the U.S.) by the end of 2024. This comes after a campaign by shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, which filed a proxy proposal and has now withdrawn it. (Sept 2022)
Added two new water restoration goals to its "water positive" sustainability strategy—one connected to the manufacturing phase of its products and one connected to the use phase. In that order (June 2022):
Both goals will be achieved in large part through partnerships with leading environmental organizations and offsetting projects involving a range of solutions that improve, manage, and protect water resources.
The Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition of Action — Released a paper, “Chemical Recycling in a Circular Economy for Plastics,” outlining principles for developing new “credible, safe and environmentally sound” chemical recycling technologies. The paper’s 16 corporate co-authors, including CEF members PepsiCo, P&G, and Unilever, state that chemical recycling could increase packaging recycling rates, including hard-to-recycle plastics. The Coalition also published a new independent (LCA) study demonstrating how chemical recycling of hard-to-recycle plastic waste could reduce the climate impact of plastic when compared to waste-to-energy incineration. (April 2022)
EcoBeautyScore Consortium — 36 cosmetics and personal care companies, and business associations joined the collaboration “to develop an industry-wide environmental impact assessment and scoring system for cosmetics products.” They are inviting other companies to join the effort, with a prototype targeted for year-end 2022. New signatories include Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (of CEF member Johnson & Johnson) and Procter & Gamble. (March 2022)
The Recycling Partnership launched a Recycling Inclusion Fund to “close the equity gap” in the US waste and recycling system. It will provide access, education, and career advancement opportunities in the sustainability sector for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) populations. Initial funding partners include CEF members 3M and Procter & Gamble. (Feb 2022)
Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Forest Positive Coalition of Action — Released a new Beef Roadmap for coalition members to address forest degradation and conversion in their beef supply chains. The CEOs of CEF members PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever belong to the coalition. (Feb 2022)
EASTMAN — Will invest up to $1 billion to build what it says is the world’s largest molecular plastics recycling facility in France, capable of annually recycling up to 160,000 metric tons of "hard-to-recycle plastic waste that is currently being incinerated" and creating low-carbon virgin-quality material. Eastman also plans to establish an innovation center to advance alternative plastic waste recycling methods. Both projects are expected to be operational by 2025, with CEF member Procter & Gamble and other global companies signing letters of intent for supply agreements with the facility. (Jan 2022)
74 companies released a joint statement urging UN Member States meeting at the UN Environment Assembly next month to create a legally binding, international treaty to combat worldwide plastic pollution. Notably, they called for the treaty to: have both upstream and downstream policies (including reducing virgin plastic production), provide robust governance, and align governments, businesses, and civil society under a shared approach. Signatories include CEF members PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever. (Jan 2022)
Transparent 2021: Annual ReSource: Plastic Progress Report (World Wildlife Fund) —Outlines progress made by the eight companies in the ReSource: Plastic program—including CEF members Kimberly-Clark, McDonald’s, and Procter & Gamble—in tackling plastic waste. From 2018 to 2020, the five Principal program members—including McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble—increased their use of recycled content from 7.8% to 9.6% (124,000 metric tons). The report outlines opportunities and recommendations for corporate collective action and investment, and calls for a global treaty on plastic pollution. (Dec 2021)
Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Forest Positive Coalition of Action — Launched the first phase of its
strategy
to collectively drive forest-positive change in areas equal to the size of its combined production-base footprint by 2030. All members of the CEO-led coalition committed to investing annually through 2023 in at least one program from its Portfolio of Landscape Initiatives, which cover the production of palm oil, soy, paper, pulp and fiber-based packaging, and beef. CEF members
PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble,
and
Unilever
belong to the coalition. (Nov 2021)
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The Department of Energy (DOE) released a
progress update on its
Better Plants program,
which aims to decarbonize the industrial sector. Over 250
manufacturers and water utilities
have participated in the program and
cumulatively saved $9.3 billion in energy costs and over 1.9 quadrillion BTUs of energy—more energy than Wisconsin uses annually. Program partners include CEF members
3M, Dow, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble,
and Schneider Electric.
(Oct 2021)
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The CEOs of over 1,000 companies
with a combined $4.7 trillion in annual revenue
sent an
open letter
to all heads of state
ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
(COP15), urging them to adopt a concrete commitment to reverse nature loss by 2030.
They said the July 2021
draft plan for a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
“lacks the ambition and specificity required to drive the urgent action needed.” Signatories include the CEOs of CEF members
BASF, Google, International Paper, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Schneider Electric, Tiffany & Co., Unilever,
and Waste Management. (Oct 2021)
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PROCTER & GAMBLE / WALMART —
The two companies
developed a digital interactive experience,
as part of
Walmart’s
Built for Better online shopping destination, to
educate families on ways to conserve resources in their home. Visitors keep a Sustainability Impact Scorecard to tally up potential savings and learn about sustainable home products, including Procter & Gamble products. (Oct 2021)
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Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Forest Positive Coalition of Action —
The CEO-led coalition representing 20 companies with a collective market value of over $1.8 trillion (launched in 2020)
issued its first
annual report, which includes a
new set of 3 member-aligned KPIs for driving toward a forest-positive future that are set against the coalition’s
commodity-specific roadmaps. The companies—which include CEF members
PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble,
and Unilever—also
shared in the report their individual and collective progress in publicly reporting on those KPIs. (Sept 2021)
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86 NEW COMPANIES SIGN “THE CLIMATE PLEDGE” — Amazon announced that
over 86 companies worldwide joined
“The Climate Pledge,” thereby
committing to reach net-zero emissions by 2040.
New signatories include CEF members
CBRE, HP, and
Procter & Gamble.
The Pledge now has
200 signatories representing over $1.8 trillion in annual revenue, 21 countries, 26 industries, and over 7 million employees.
(Sept 2021)
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Committed to
achieving net-zero emissions across its operations and supply chain—from raw material to retailer—by 2040, and to removing and storing carbon from any residual emissions that can’t be eliminated.
Interim science-based targets, which have been submitted for SBTi approval, include reducing operations emissions by 50% and supply chain emissions by 40% by 2030. It also
joined the UN Race to Zero and the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign
and released its new
Climate Transition Action Plan. (Sept 2021)
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32 companies that have prioritized their workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
(e.g., by establishing safety practices, disclosing demographic details to drive racial equity, worker benefits)
have outperformed companies on the Russell 1000 by 8.6%, according to a JUST Capital
ranking of companies “leading for their workers” by industry. CEF members
BlackRock, Chevron, Comcast, Dow, Ford, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lockheed Martin, McKesson,
and Procter & Gamble are among the 32 companies featured. (Sept 2021)
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TIDE (P&G) / NFL —
Will launch a “#TurnToCold” program this football season to encourage over 80 million US households of NFL fans to wash their clothes with cold water to reduce GHG emissions. The program is estimated to result in
16 billion loads washed on cold per year for a 5.6 million-metric-ton emissions reduction—the equivalent of taking over 1 million cars off the road for a year. (Sept 2021)
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Unveiled a
paper bottle pilot for its brand Lenor, which it developed in partnership with paper bottle company
Paboco. The bottle will be rolled out in Western Europe, with the potential to scale up paper packaging and use it more widely across Procter & Gamble’s portfolio. (July 2021)
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RE100
— The RE100 companies, which are committed to 100% renewable electricity, now have an electricity demand greater than that of the U.K. or Italy and are on track to save CO2 emissions equal to burning over 118 million tons of coal per year. RE100 members include
CEF Members:
3M, Apple, Bank of America, Bloomberg, Dell Technologies, Ecolab, Facebook, General Motors, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Mastercard, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens AG, TD Bank Group, Trane Technologies, Unilever,
and Visa.
(July 2021)
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What's Next: How Consumer Goods Leaders Envision Tomorrow (PwC, The Consumer Goods Forum) — Identifies what 16 leaders in the consumer goods industry—including Procter & Gamble, Alibaba, and Coca-Cola—anticipate for the sector’s future, focusing on 6 main topics (brand relevance, store of the future, ESG, supply chain, overall business growth, and the future of food). Concludes personalization; supply chain visibility; improved local and regional sourcing practices; and consumer preference for supporting local businesses are key drivers of growth. (June 2021)
Arizona Water Conservation Collaborative
—
Corporations and foundations—including
Intel Corp., Google, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Ecolab, and Target—committed a total of $38 million in funding to conserve nearly 49 billion gallons of water and avoid the first water shortage in Lake Mead. Led by the state of Arizona, Business for Water Stewardship, and the Environmental Defense Fund, this is the single largest multi-sector, collaborative drought-response effort in the state. (June 2021)
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PAMPERS (P&G) — Introduced its first hybrid diaper featuring reusable parts and using 25% less disposable materials. (May 2021)
Second Chance Business Coalition — A cross-sector coalition of 29 large US employers committed to expanding second chance hiring and advancement practices for people with criminal records. Co-chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Eaton CEO Craig Arnold, members include Bank of America, Cisco, GM, JPMorgan & Chase, Mastercard, McDonald’s, Microsoft, P&G, PepsiCo, and Visa. (May 2021)
Launched a new campaign, “It’s Our Home,” to share how small actions at home can make a world of difference for the planet as part of its commitment to inspire responsible consumption among its 5 billion daily consumers. (April 2021)
Rimba Collective — A new coalition backed by Nestle, PepsiCo, and Procter & Gamble aiming to invest $1 billion in forest conservation projects across Southeast Asia over 25 years. The initiative will fund projects protecting and restoring more than 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of tropical forests in Indonesia and the region. (April 2021)
PLASTIC BANK — Announced it had stopped 1 billion plastic bottles from entering the world’s oceans. It recognized several global partners who have championed the reintegration of plastic materials collected and processed as “Social Plastic®” into global supply chains, including Coca-Cola, IBM, Procter & Gamble, and SC Johnson. (April 2021)
Announced “Widen the Screen,” a content creation, talent development, and partnership platform that enables and advocates for increased inclusion of Black creators across the advertising, film, and television industries. (April 2021)
Committed to sourcing 100% Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) certified wood pulp for its Charmin, Puffs, and Bounty products by 2030. It expects to achieve its previous goal—nearly doubling its FSC®-certified fiber use to 75% by 2025—3 years ahead of schedule. (March 2021)
TIDE (P&G)— Announced a set of sustainability goals as part of its “2030 Ambition” to decarbonize the laundry value chain, and launched a multi-year partnership with HanesBrands featuring a “wash in cold” call-to-action to consumers. 2030 goals include (March 2021):
PROCTER & GAMBLE’S ARIEL BRAND — Pledged to completely decarbonize its laundry value chain by 2030. (March 2021)
The Take on Race Coalition, led by Procter & Gamble, announced a new initiative (“One Million Connected Devices Now”) to deliver one million connected devices to students lacking access to digital devices and tools. The Partners include Comcast, Dell Technologies, Dow Jones, Fidelity, Intel, Microsoft Corp, PNC Bank, PolicyLink, and Walmart. Additional partners are welcome. (February 2021)
Procter & Gamble brands Old Spice and Secret launched refillable antiperspirant cases packaged with 100% FSC-certified recycled paperboard, replacing all single-use plastic packaging. (February 2021)
Procter & Gamble subsidiary Gillette launched “Planet KIND,” a new shaving and skincare brand consisting of recyclable features and packaging. Gillette has partnered with Plastic Bank to prevent ten plastic bottles from entering the ocean for every Planet KIND product purchased and set a target to avoid 10 million within the first year. (February 2021)
The World Economic Forum
launched Partnering for Racial Justice in Business Initiative, a new coalition to build more equitable and just workplaces. Three steps required to join the initiative include: 1)
Racial and ethnic equity must be placed
on the board’s agenda; 2) Companies must
make at least one commitment towards racial and ethnic justice in their organizations; 3) Companies must put a
long-term strategy in place towards
becoming an anti-racist organization. Founding members include
Bank of America, BlackRock, Bloomberg, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, Mastercard, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever,
and UPS.
(January 2021)
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»
Procter & Gamble’s Oral Care brands, Oral-B and Crest, announced new 2030 sustainability goals to educate and enable 2 billion people to adopt healthy oral care habits, transition packaging to be 100% recyclable, and reduce GHG emissions in operations and improve water efficiency by 35%. (January 2021)
Procter & Gamble will begin using recyclable HDPE toothpaste tubes for its toothpaste brands — Crest, Oral-B and Blend-a-med — beginning January 2021. The company plans to fully transition the brands’ packaging to the recyclable HDPE alternative by 2025. (December 2020)
Procter & Gamble brand Gillette announced its 2030 sustainability strategy, which includes plans to use 100% renewable purchased electricity, reduce GHG emissions from manufacturing by 50%, reduce water use by 35%, reduce absolute virgin plastic by 50%, provide 100% transparency about the ingredients in its formulas, and more. (November 2020)
A group of 17 global consumer goods brands, retailers and manufacturers — including General Mills, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Walmart — have joined the Forest Positive Coalition of Action, an initiative to “engage and collaborate with producers, suppliers and traders, as well as governments and civil society, to advocate for forest positive solutions.” The coalition is led by The Consumer Goods Forum. (September 2020)
Procter & Gamble became an inaugural member of The Recycling Partnership's new Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, an industry-driven effort to “improve polypropylene recovery and recycling in the United States and further develop the end-market of high-quality recycled polypropylene.” (July 2020)
Procter & Gamble has partnered with the It Gets Better Project to amplify stories from the LGBTQ+ community that celebrate progress and educate the world on the LGBTQ+ experience. (June 2020)
Procter & Gamble granted Cargill an exclusive license to further develop and commercialize a new green chemistry technology that converts lactic acid into bio-based acrylic acid, which could enable more consumer products to be made from bio-based materials. (May 2020)
Procter & Gamble will introduce all-paper, plastic-free packaging for select Old Spice and Secret aluminum-free deodorants at 500 Walmart stores in May. The paper tube packaging is made of 90% recycled, FSC-certified paper. (April 2020)
Walmart will provide 1 liter of clean water to people in need for every Procter & Gamble (P&G) product sold at its stores in 2019, as part of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. To date, the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program has delivered more than 14 billion liters of clean water to people in more than 90 countries. (March 2019)
Ranked #9 on Forbes and JUST Capital 2020 JUST 100 list, which ranks U.S. public companies based on their corporate citizenship performance. (Nov 2019)
Procter & Gamble is now purchasing 100% renewable energy in the US, Canada, and Western Europe. These three markets represent over 70% of the company’s purchased electricity. (Oct 2019)
Procter & Gamble’s Family Care brands set new goals for paper products, including plans to nearly double the use of FSC-certified fiber to 75% in the next five years, invest $20 million to accelerate research into non-wood fiber alternatives and FSC certified fast growing fibers by 2025, use 100% recycled fiber in fiber-based packaging by 2025, and more. (Oct 2019)
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Participating in the American Cleaning Institute's “Our Future Is Clean” initiative to highlight how its more than 140 member companies across the cleaning industry are driving action to help create a sustainable future and promote consumers’ health and well-being. The initiative will launch during National Cleaning Week 2020. (Sep 2019)
Joined as a principal member of WWF's ReSource: Plastic, a platform aimed at helping companies to maximize, measure, and multiply their impact on solving the plastic pollution crisis. (May 2019)
Joined a group of companies, cities, and institutions in issuing the Renewable Thermal Buyers’ Statement, which calls for “market-ready, sustainable, renewable thermal solutions to meet their economic, greenhouse gas emission reduction and renewable energy goals.” (March 2019)
Procter & Gamble has partnered with National Geographic to launch ACTIVATE, a multiplatform storytelling partnership and six-part documentary series that addresses extreme poverty, inequality, and sustainability issues. The series will premier globally in fall 2019 on National Geographic in 172 countries and 43 languages. (Feb 2019)
Joined Terracycle as a program partner in Loop, a new program that “enables consumers to responsibly consumea variety of products in customized, brand-specific durable packaging that is collected, cleaned, refilled and reused.” (Jan 2019)
Joined a group of nearly 30 companies in forming the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, an alliance of global companies from the plastics and consumer goods value chain that aims to invest $1.5 billion over the next five years to help end the flow of plastic waste into the environment. The alliance has already committed over $1 billion. (Jan 2019)
Procter & Gamble showcased a new line of eight personal care and household cleaning products that do not contain any water. The company is expected to launch these products in late 2019. (Jan 2019)
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Amy O’Meara, Executive Director
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Mike Rama, Deputy Director
mike@corporateecoforum.com | (607) 287-9236
Margaret Zamoyta, Program Lead
margaret@corporateecoforum.com I (917) 678-4161
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