Month: April 2023

Gen Blog

By Amanda Davis | Sr. Manager, CR and Environment

Each April, people, businesses, and governments around the world come together to celebrate Earth Month. While at Gen we work to advance our environmental stewardship year-round, Earth Month is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to protecting the planet and advocate for positive change around pressing environmental challenges. 

Here are three ways Gen advances environmental progress through our business:

1. Engaging our employees

Empowering our employees to lead more sustainable lives is critical for our own sustainability success. Gen maintains an employee resource group (ERG) called Terra to engage our employees on environmental action. Terra is committed to protecting the planet by taking small actions every day — as we believe that, together, our individual acts can help save forests, conserve water, reduce air pollution, and tackle climate change. 

Terra has grown to more than 60 members, who are interested in and passionate about the environment. The ERG has arranged educational events such as upcycling and growing your own food. To celebrate Earth Month, we’ve partnered with Girl Up and Anthesis to host a panel on climate activism, justice, and equality. Employees also have an opportunity to participate in themed Earth Month Missions and challenges on our Giving Hub each week!

Last Earth Month, we announced the Sustainable Home Improvement Program, which provides our employees with up to $500 per year to make sustainability improvements in their own homes. To-date, 780 employees participated in the program, completing sustainability improvements such as installing solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems, composting systems, upgrading to energy efficient home appliances, and more.  With many of our employees working remotely, helping them to improve their home sustainability helps Gen lower our own Scope 3 emissions — our GHG emissions from upstream and downstream activities of the company.

2. Partnering with NGOs

Gen recognizes that we can do more for the planet by working with others. That’s why we partner with NGOs to amplify positive environmental impact, such as increasing access to renewable energy. 

One way Gen does this is through our partnership with GRID Alternatives National Tribal Program. GRID is a leading nonprofit helping low-income communities get clean, affordable, renewable energy, transportation, and jobs. 

Since our partnership launched in April 2022, GRID has worked with 20 tribes in California, Colorado, Washington, and New Mexico to complete over 155 renewable energy projects. Some of the key results of our funding include:

Installing 720 kilowatts of solar power and 38 backup storage batteries that will prevent an estimated 13,000 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the lifetime of the systems.Benefiting 380 Tribal families from the completed projects. Generating $4 million in financial savings for Tribal leadership over the system’s lifetime.Engaging 57 trainees to gain 2,700 hours of hands-on experience installing these projects, which exceeded our goal of 50 individuals. 

Gen also supports international efforts to increase renewable energy. Our three-year partnership with Barefoot College International (BCI) supports their women-centered global network, dedicated to sustainable development in impoverished communities. BCI operates across more than 90 countries, and Gen’s financial support enables the organization’s Solar Mama initiative, which provides solar engineering and education programs.

3. Improving energy and operational efficiency

With 98% of our products offered digitally, emissions from data centers are a top priority for improving our environmental performance. 

To address data center emissions, we decommissioned our Tucson data center and moved operations to more efficient co-located data centers that rely on less carbon intensive electricity grids. This contributed to our 39% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions between FY21 and FY22. We continue to look for ways to minimize our energy and operational footprint. 

Earth Month is a time for all of us to pause and reflect on all that we’ve achieved — and the work yet to be done — to build a better and more sustainable world. For ideas on how to take action this month, visit https://www.earthday.org/take-action-now

Originally published on 3M News Center

Ah, springtime! There’s something in the air…pollen?!

While green grass, budding leaves, and plants and flowers emerging from the ground may be welcome sights, they can also usher in a spike in airborne allergens.

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) recently released its 20th annual Top 20 Allergy Capitals list for 2023. Tree and grass pollen scores are among several factors AAFA considers for its annual rankings. Wichita, Kansas received the dubious honors of top ranking. Florida has seven cities in the top 20 rankings. Oklahoma has two cities in the top five spots.

In its 2023 list news release, AAFA noted that since it began identifying allergy capitals 20 years ago, pollen counts have been rising as growing seasons lengthen, which leads to higher pollen concentrations in areas of the country.

Pollen isn’t the only problem. Seasonal outdoor and indoor projects and activities that involve cleaning, dusting, moving, packing, sanding, sawing, mowing, raking, wildfires and more can also stir up all kinds of airborne particulates.

Cover up outside 

Staying inside or avoiding fun or productive outdoor activities that generate airborne particles probably isn’t a realistic or desirable option for most people.

If airborne pollen keeps you inside – especially in the spring and fall — then wearing a respirator can help to filter the airborne pollen and other types of non-hazardous airborne particles when you’re outside, or when you’re in or near an environment where particulates are being stirred up into the air.

Most people have grown used to seeing and using face coverings over the past few years, but not everyone knows the difference between an N95 respirator and a disposable or reusable mask. A key difference is that respirators are designed to be tight-fitting and form a seal to the face, allowing the air to go through the respirator filter to help reduce airborne particles. Masks tend to be loose-fitting and allow unfiltered air to leak through the gaps.

It’s important to find a respirator that fits well and forms a good seal to the face so it can help capture a wide range of airborne particles such as dust and debris, smoke, pollen and other airborne allergen particles. A respirator to consider for airborne pollen concerns is the 3M™ Aura™ Particulate Respirator 9205+, a NIOSH-approved N95 respirator that fits a wide range of face shapes and sizes.

Clean up inside 

Those pesky pollens can also infiltrate the home’s indoor spaces, especially if doors and windows are open to bring in fresh air. On the other hand, if the home is tightly closed to keep pollens out, or for winter heating or summer cooling purposes, then other types of tiny airborne debris inside the home can linger and accumulate.

Microparticles commonly present in the home’s air year-round can include allergens like pet dander, dust and mold, as well as microbes (e.g. bacteria and viruses) and particulates from routine household activities like cooking or burning candles.

This is where HVAC air filters come into play. They help to clean the home’s air by capturing those tiny, but pervasive, particles that are too small to see without a microscope.

3M Filtrete™ Brand is the first brand of HVAC air filters that are CERTIFIED asthma & allergy friendly®. Five Filtrete products — rated MPR 1500, 1600, 1900, 2200 and 2800 — have undergone testing to achieve this certification. MPR, short for microparticle performance rating, measures how well an air filter captures particles. The higher the number, the more effective the product is in capturing the smallest airborne particles. Microparticles are .3 microns to 1 micron in size. For comparison, an average strand of human hair is about 60 microns wide.

Allergy Standards Ltd. (ASL) developed this certification program with rigorous science-based standards for testing products and services for homes. They have partnered with AAFA to bring the voices of those with asthma and allergy into the conversation. The program helps shoppers make informed choices about the products they purchase for their homes if allergens are a concern.

To achieve certification, products and services are tested in independent laboratories, using testing processes overseen by ASL, to ensure they meet the program’s strict scientific standards. For HVAC air filters, the testing criteria includes allergen capture and removal effectiveness, the product’s seal integrity to ensure it doesn’t have weak spots around the edges where allergens could pass through, and airflow to ensure the filter can continue to perform well even when it’s loaded with dust.

“The AAFA and ASL science-based certification process made perfect sense for 3M as a company that believes science helps create a brighter world for everyone,” said Doug Huntley, 3M Home Environment & Safety Business senior global R&D director. “As a technical and market leader for residential air filtration and improving indoor air quality, with over three decades of providing solutions to residential consumers, the certification also demonstrates the 3M Filtrete brand cares about our customers and wants to provide them with the best products for their needs.”

CINCINNATI, April 27, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Tide and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have joined forces to advance the science of eco-behavior change via a new research project – undertaken as part of an ongoing collaborative effort to make washing laundry in cold water the next broadly adopted eco-habit as an important step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Tide and WWF believe the insights gathered from their work together on laundry are applicable for all brands seeking to partner with consumers to create positive environmental impact. Their goal is to educate people and establish washing laundry in cold water as the accepted social norm.

Tide and WWF engaged behavioral science consultancy, Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), to undertake a comprehensive review of existing published research and case studies on sustainable habits, including relevant consumer tests from P&G and best practices in climate change impact from WWF.

As brands and organizations increasingly seek to unlock habit change to enable widescale positive environmental benefits, the findings from the Tide and WWF project identified the importance of applying behavioral frameworks and systems thinking, such as:

– Enabling new consumer habits by creating the capability to act either physically or psychologically, the opportunity to act via cues or feelings of social acceptance, and the motivation to act through alignment with intrinsic values or delivery of extrinsic rewards; and

– Introducing interventions that are ideally a combination of easy (requires minimal effort), attractive (offers worthwhile incentives), social (makes one feel part of a group) and timely (uses relevant moments and offers a clear timeline for benefits).

“For brands like Tide and many others, consumer use often makes up a significant portion of a product’s carbon footprint,” said Marty Spitzer, senior director of climate and renewable energy, WWF. “We’ve seen how small actions can add up to big impact, especially when addressing the use phase. Sharing these research findings and related cold water case study, will provide useful insights and guidance for all brands and consumers taking on the behavior change journey.”

“When Tide set a goal for 3 out of 4 washes to be done on cold by 2030, we knew we’d need partners to help us drive the change,” said Todd Cline, Senior Director of Sustainability, North America Fabric Care, Procter & Gamble. “Within the first year of setting our cold water ambition we advanced a quarter of the way toward our goal – a promising signal that consumers were interested in making this shift. Now, we’ve used the proven frameworks that emerged from our work with WWF and BIT to inform all our #TurnToCold wash efforts across the business and to identify several key levers we’ll aim to pull at once to move consumers further into action.”

Through the program, Tide developed an “ecosystem” to advance the habit of washing laundry on cold. The map focuses on increasing enablers and reducing barriers, such as encouraging cold as the default setting on washing machines, introducing disruptions at the point of laundry and helping make cold water washing a social norm through continued brand marketing and communications campaigns.

Washing in cold saves up to 90% of the energy in every wash cycle1 and can save Americans up to $150 a year2. Tide estimates that a decade of Americans washing the majority (3 in 4) of their loads in cold would save enough electricity to power all of New York City and San Francisco for over a year3. That’s the equivalent of 27 million metric tons (MT) of GHG emissions4 or nearly ten times that of P&G’s global yearly operations.5

As one of America’s most trusted laundry detergents, Tide has helped lead the charge to switch to cold water washing for more than 20 years with breakthrough innovations like enzymes specifically optimized for performance in lower wash temperatures. Efforts to drive cold water adoption were advanced by the announcement of Tide’s 2030 Ambition, a set of broad-reaching sustainability commitments as part of Tide’s ongoing journey to decarbonize laundry, including a goal to cut GHG emissions by half in Tide’s manufacturing plants by 2030.

For more information on cold water washing and Tide’s collaborative journey to make cold wash the next broadly adopted eco-habit, please visit Tide.com.

For the full report, please see www.worldwildlife.org/publications/encouraging-us-households-to-wash-laundry-in-cold-water.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands. For other P&G news, visit us at www.pg.com/news.

1 On average, when switching from hot to cold water
2 In non-HE washer, 8 loads/wk from hot to cold, avg. electricity rate (13.3c/kWh)
3 According to reported city-wide annual electricity usage by New York Building Congress and the California Energy Commission
4 Over the decade, 2020-2030
5 As outlined in P&G’s Climate Action Transition Plan

Chloe Kivestu
Chloe.kivestu@ketchum.com

Bilgehan UyarErol
uyarerol.b@pg.com

Source: Procter & Gamble

By Marc van den Biggelaar

Investment in these types of partnerships and technologies represents a big step toward Dow’s broader goals on circularity, sustainability and decarbonization.

Partnerships are at the heart of our work. Working with like-minded organizations helps us to achieve our goals and fulfill our purpose. We can help deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and our commitment to collaboration.

But the requirements of creating a sustainable future are shifting as our customers demand more recycled material to meet their sustainability commitments — and consumer demands. What’s more, the bar for what constitutes a positive impact continues to rise. To meet these challenges head on, Dow is investing in the partnerships and technology necessary to change the game. A critical piece of this circularity puzzle? Investing in advanced recycling solutions which complement mechanical recycling so that both technologies work in tandem to meet demand. The industrial ecosystems for plastics circularity will depend on many technologies and solutions that work together.

Partnerships for sustainable progress

Dow is expanding our Mura Technologies partnership with a landmark investment to build Europe’s largest advanced recycling facility at Dow’s site in Böhlen, Germany. This partnership greatly expands Dow’s ability to use advanced recycling, to transform waste plastics into high quality circular resins that can be used in applications such as, food packaging, medical packaging and hygiene products. This partnership complements mechanical recycling infrastructure that is already in place. Our relationship with Mura advances Dow’s goal to build multiple advanced recycling units across Europe and the U.S., adding as many as 600,000 tons of capacity per year by 2030.

Expanding our partnership with Mura is just one facet of how we are bolstering the circular economy with strategic partnerships. In France, for example, Dow has joined forces with Valoregen to build the country’s largest single hybrid recycling site, which will bring advanced and mechanical recycling facilities into one processing location. This partnership will yield recycled material Dow can use to produce circular or recycled plastic resins—such as our REVOLOOP™ Recycled Plastics Resins portfolio that contains post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, which recently received certification for plastics recycling traceability and content in Europe.

Accelerating commitments to meet the moment

Investment in these types of partnerships and technologies represents a big step toward Dow’s broader goals on circularity, sustainability and decarbonization. In 2022, Dow announced an ambitious target to transform waste and alternative feedstocks into 3 million metric tons of circular and renewable solutions annually by 2030, accelerating previous targets to ensure Dow is shifting to embrace new challenges while growing the business. To achieve this Transform the Waste target, we must improve plastic recycling ecosystems, which requires deploying both new and existing technologies in smart, innovative ways. Partnerships such as those with Mura and Valoregen are the only way to achieve the global impact needed in this moment.

Ultimately, there is no one size fits all solution. Dow believes that moving the needle on climate change requires a circular ecosystem with a mix of technologies and innovation. After all, it’s partnerships that power progress. By collectively prioritizing solutions, we can make sustainable progress for our people and our planet alike.

Marc van den Biggelaar, Advanced Recycling Director for Dow EMEA and APAC