Cold Laundry can save you money and the planet! Todd Cline from Proctor and Gamble

https://tide.com/en-us

https://www.tiktok.com/@tidelaundry

How can you save $150 per year and help save the planet? 
30 billion loads of laundry per year and that's a huge impact! 
Could reduce 27,000,000 tons of CO2 in a decade if this change happens and people switch to cold water for laundry with 75% just in North America! 

https://anewearthproject.com/collections/new-earth-approved

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This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

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Cory Connors: 0:00

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is Mr. Todd Klein, the Senior Director of FabriCare Sustainability for Procter Gamble. How are you, sir?

Todd Cline: 0:11

I'm doing great.

Cory Connors: 0:12

How are you today? Really good. Thank you for making some time. we met in, San Diego at the Sustainable Brands event, where you and some of your team members and, some cohorts were talking about, some amazing things that we'll get into later in this show. But first, before we get into any of that, I want to talk about your background. How did you get to this point in your career?

Todd Cline: 0:33

Yeah, so, my title is senior director of sustainability for our fabric care business. So I focus on our North America fabric care. that is brands that hopefully a lot of the listeners use, like Tide and Gain and Draft and Downy. I lead our sustainability efforts there. I've been with the company a long time, about 30 years at Procter Gamble. So I studied chemical engineering at the University of Kentucky, came right out of undergrad into P& G. I've worked across a bunch of different business units while I've been there. I started in healthcare. We used to have a food and beverage business. I worked in coffee for several years and cleaning products. But I was lucky enough to get to go to Europe for about three and a half years. I was based in Brussels, working on our home care products, their cleaning products, but was doing a lot of work in Geneva. And I happened on the scheme while I was there is Geneva is right outside of Chamonix in the Alps, and I just fell in love with skiing. And, got on a ski share with a bunch of people I worked with and one weekend we were delayed to get on the lifts because, high wind the lifts weren't operating yet. And this was back in 2005 2006. so just picked up a ski magazine and started reading it and it talked about the impact of climate. And what it could do to scheme and, storms being much worse at high elevations and no snow at all and low elevations. And that's really what started open my eyes on sustainability further. I'd always been into water quality and litter and waste in nature and thinking about sustainability. But that's really what started to. Open up my mind to there's more to it and thinking about climate and that was also about the time that an inconvenient truth came out and saw that and just that really, it really lit a spark with me of how do I start to build it into the work that I do? Because we reach so many consumers and when I came back to the US, I was working in Swiffer initially and we did our first gale in 2015. Life cycle assessment on Swiffer wet and wet jet on understanding. How do we reduce impact there? And just, what started out as I moved into fabric care is a small part of my job because I said, I wanted to work on sustainability. They said great. We'd love to have you do something. every year became a bigger and bigger part until. The last few years it's, I've been lucky enough that I get to focus on it 100 percent and I eventually move from being in the R& D organization to now I lead our both the commercial and technical aspects of our sustainability efforts for the brands.

Cory Connors: 3:16

Oh, that's excellent. And you're exactly right. what we're doing here with things like packaging and laundry and all of these thoughts that we're having will affect everyday life and, sporting and, leisure activities. And, well said that's a really important way of looking at things. So, I agree with you. I'd like to talk about laundry. The panel that you were on was really fascinating and something that I hadn't frankly ever thought of before, but it really opened my eyes to how important it is with the way that we do laundry. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Todd Cline: 3:53

Yeah, sure. Well, we're certainly, we're very much a science based company and we see lifecycle assessment as really the most holistic tool. To look at impact, and I expect most of your listeners are somewhat familiar with life cycle assessment. I mentioned it with Swiffer, but it's really looking at, the impacts from making the raw materials and packaging materials, like, what our suppliers do for the things that we buy our manufacturing operations, the transported product, how the consumers use the products, and then end of life of the product. And as we look at the life cycle of a load of laundry. It surprises a lot of people that almost 70 percent of the carbon footprint of doing a load of laundry is not the raw materials. It's not the packaging. It's not our manufacturing operations. The biggest driver by far is consumer use. And that's the technical term for it. Consumer use. The reality is it's all driven by what temperature we choose. It's the difference in choosing warm, hot, or cold for doing a load of laundry. If someone switches from hot to cold, it reduces the energy of that use phase by 90%. But if someone switches from warm to cold, It reduces it by 70%. So it's not like warm is even in the middle or warm is good enough to really have low carbon impact loads of laundry. We need people washing on cold. So we were just as we looked at what are going to be our aspirations for tide. as a company, we've committed to net zero and we play a critical role within the company on delivering the net zero commitment. And that really covers us from, raw material to retailer as we think about net zero. It doesn't incorporate the consumer use. So, in addition to the part that we play in delivering net zero. We took on an additional aspiration for tide of, we set an ambition of, we want to get 75 percent of loads in North America to cold by 2030, not 75 percent of tide loads, but 75 percent of loads in North America. And it, it doesn't necessarily sound like that would be a huge impact or I get people to switch to cold, but in US and Canada, we do over 30 billion loads of laundry per year. Across the two countries and by getting 75 percent of them to cold by 2030, we would avoid over 27, 000, 000 tons of CO2 for the decade into the atmosphere just by getting people to wash on cold and 27, 000, 000 tons. It's a big number. And it's hard to dimension exactly what it is. And thinking of just the number, but 27, 000, 000 tons of CO2. Is over 10X our total emissions of total Procter and Gamble, or it's the equivalent of powering both New York and San Francisco for an entire year. So it's a huge impact just by switching to cold. Cory Connors: That's incredible. I, I had no idea the dramatic impact that could happen. How are consumers reacting to your campaign for this change? Yeah. So it's, it's certainly been a journey. people generally start doing laundry because they learn from someone else and knowledge gets passed on to them on what's the right way to do laundry. and generally what people are taught is there are some loads that you do on coal. A lot of times it's the things you want to protect the most. You don't want to shrink or fade, jeans or dark colors, things like that. There are some loads that you do on more. And there's some loads that you do on hot, like, sheets and towels and just the belief that you need hot water to get those clean. And that gets ingrained into all of us as we learn to do laundry. So, what we started in 2021 is. We activated our initial campaign. It was cold callers where we use several well known celebrities to highlight the benefits of washing on cold and just have people think about it when they go to the machine and make that choice. And we certainly talked about, you could reduce your carbon footprint as wash on cold is one of the benefits, but if you wash on cold and you reduce that energy. It can also save you up to 150 per year on your utility bills. And of course, people already intuitively know that it's better for your clothes and helps them last longer. And as much as for our sustainability work, we're very focused on. We want people to switch to cold. because it reduces the carbon footprint. What we found so far is the thing that's been most effective to date on helping people make that switch is highlighting, I can save 150 per year on my utility bills. And in reality, the, it doesn't matter to the atmosphere, why people choose cold as far as motivation. So we've been on this journey of how do we really just understand the science of behavior change? And apply that and bring that to people.

Cory Connors: 9:14

That's excellent. And I agree with you sometimes the carrot or the impetus for the reason of change doesn't matter. it's as long as the end result is a positive thing and the consumers like myself, when I learned that, I said, I. My wife runs the machines and I fold them. so I said, Hey, do we do it on cold or hot? And she said, Oh, cool. We switched a while ago. Cause, we save money that way. And I said, Oh, great. So we're part of the solution with you.

Todd Cline: 9:43

That's awesome to hear. And I, so I think highlighting what are those advantages is just, that's been important, the other piece that's been important is just reinforcing that. I can wash on cold and still get a great clean, is the other piece of it. Because, the worst thing that can happen is we convince someone to try cold and then it doesn't come out as clean as they want. So we have to design the product to make sure that they really excel in cold water, but then also help convince people that it will work. And I think one of the great things we've had going is we've worked a lot of partnerships on how do we get the message out there. And one of my favorite ones that we've got to work on. To help reinforce the cleaning performance on cold is with the NFL. So, in 2021 as well, we actually had half of the NFL, which to doing all of their laundry on cold with tide. So, all the uniforms that are on TV every, Thursday night and Sunday, and Monday night washed on cold, their towels, everything. And we were able to activate that with, we had Matt Ryan and television commercial as part of the cold colors campaign. We did activations within the NFL cities, and that was a great way to just help frame. We can get NFL close. Clean on cold with the type of dirt and sweat and everything that goes into that surely with what you're doing in your home. We can deliver that as well. And I think 1 of the other exciting things for us is both the teams in the Super Bowl. That year we're washing on cold. and 1 of them was the Bengals and we're based in Cincinnati. So we're very happy with that. But unfortunately, we couldn't pull up the wind, but, the Rams and the Bengals both that year were washing on cold.

Cory Connors: 11:26

Well, still a win for the environment. well done. That's really amazing to see that partnership is so successful. you've also partnered with General Electric and, you're working on, or they're working on modifying their equipment to make it so it washes better on cold as well. Is that right?

Todd Cline: 11:45

Yeah, we just. I think we've really been looking at how do we expand the ecosystem of doing a load of laundry? And how do we really reach consumers and help them as they make choices? So, we partnered with W. F. on habit change and actually brought in a behavior change institute to help. And, they brought us this model that they call their East model of how do you make it? easy, attractive, social, and timely as you connect with people to apply habit change. As we look particularly at Easy and timely when you're making the switch to cold. Obviously, the machine plays a key role there and G. E. appliances has been a terrific partner with us on joining in that journey of how do they work to make it simpler and more intuitive for consumers to choose cold electro locks and others are also participating in this as well. So, I think we've got a great movement there on the washing machine side of. How do we make it easy for people to wash on cold? But then also with clothing brands, like Hanes Brands has been a terrific partner with us in this journey as well. And consumers will often look at what are the instructions, especially if they buy something new of how do I care for this? And they build into all of their care labels of wash on cold and into their packaging, wash on cold with Tide. And some of The things like save up to 150 and activations like that to help people make that choice to wash on cold as well. So we just, we know it's such a big challenge we've undertaken that having more people in it with us will be much more effective and make impact sooner than if we try to do it ourselves.

Cory Connors: 13:31

Those are some fantastic partnerships. that's really impressive. Well, Parker and Gamble is an impressive company. when I was listening to your background, I thought, wow, 20 years at this one company sounds like 10 different careers, it sounds, you've these companies that you've worked, with or for, all under this umbrella sounds like your experiences. Super vast is what I'm trying to say and you've had these, really cool interactions with different parts of the business. So that's a great idea.

Todd Cline: 14:03

Yeah, I just, I've been here, it's 30 years now with P& G, I'm old, I've been around a long time, and, yeah, I, the fact that I've got to work across different industries and different regions, and now getting to work with all these great partners, it's, I've enjoyed my entire career for sure, but, now I'm in my favorite role I've had of the entire time I've been here, so it's, It really has been great. And that's one of the cool things about working here. And I'm sure other large companies as well as you can move assignments. And it's almost like starting a new career if you like. And, but still not have to change your home address.

Cory Connors: 14:40

I love that. Do you still

Todd Cline: 14:42

ski? I do. Absolutely. We've got a, a local ski hill here just outside of Cincinnati. And I'm a volunteer ski patroller there just to make sure I get out. At least once a week there. And I try to get out West at least once a year and ski as well.

Cory Connors: 14:58

That's great. Well, next time you're in Oregon, come see us and we'll go up to Mount Hood and try out the locations there that are really great ski Hills.

Todd Cline: 15:07

I would absolutely love that.

Cory Connors: 15:10

So, Procter and Gamble has some big, sustainability targets for, 2030 and 2040, can you speak to those a little bit and, how the progress is going and how tied will fit

Todd Cline: 15:23

in that. Yeah. So as a company, we really set up our sustainability program in four key buckets of climate waste, which is where we group our packaging, water and nature from a climate standpoint, we've committed to net zero by 2040, I think all the best science says we need the earth to be there by 2050. So, 1 thing I love is our company has stepped up and said, not only will we commit to net zero, but we're going to do it 10 years early. To help be a catalyst to change and just bring things forward in the consumer goods industry and do it 10 years early within that 2040 in the consumer goods world is pretty far out. So, we also have guard rail commitments that we've set for 2030 as well. So, within our operations, we've said, we'll be climate neutral. For all of our manufacturing operations by 2030 and have 100 percent of our electricity be renewable electricity. we're lucky enough in North America that, we built a wind farm out in Tyler bluff, Texas in 2017. that already generates more renewable electricity than we use in an entire year. So we're already on the 100 percent renewable electricity, which is part of the reason our emissions. Back to the on the operation side there, they're not a big driver, especially compared to the consumer use. So that's operations. And then also for scope 3 emissions, we've committed to as a company, 40 percent lower CO2 per use for the product. So raw materials and packaging. components, I think scope 3 coming in, but for the company to get there, we in fabric care have signed up to 50 percent lower CO2 per use for our raw materials and packaging by 2030. so that's the climate pillar and then, on the packaging front, which I know a lot of your listeners are, are most engaged with what we've committed to is 100 percent of our packaging being. Recyclable or reusable by 2030. And then also a 50 percent reduction in virgin resin by 2030. then, like I mentioned, those are what the company has committed to. But then we also set our additional ambition on tide of getting to the 75 percent of loads on cold by 2030. And from a progress standpoint, like, on that 1, we've, we're now at 57 percent of loads are on cold in North America. We were at 48 percent when we made the declaration at the end of 2019, early 2020, it actually went down a bit as COVID, as the pandemic kept because people start washing even more loads on warm and hot. but we've recovered from that as we started our activations in 2021 and brought it up to 57%. And we've avoided almost 4 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere so far since we started the activation. Wow, that's

Cory Connors: 18:22

incredible. Well done. Geez, this is really exciting. I never thought I'd be so excited about laundry.

Todd Cline: 18:30

It's such a simple little change we can all make, but because we do so much of it, it really adds up.

Cory Connors: 18:36

that's that's really cool. So I, I did some research on your website and you've got some really impressive initiatives, including, new solid shampoo bars and working with the alliance to end plastic waste. can you speak to those or, is that something you're involved

Todd Cline: 18:53

with? Yeah, so I can speak more to what we're doing on the fabric care side, but I think even back to the shampoo bars, what it just points to is we've really integrated sustainability and across the entirety of the company and into the businesses. And, I think 1 of the things we, and other companies have done over the last few years, that's really helping make progress is. It's gone from sustainability efforts and leadership is not just a small corporate group trying to convince everyone to make progress to. Now that we have these large commitments, it's driven down into the individual businesses of you're accountable to deliver these. And, even within our business, just. A couple of examples, things like we switched all of our tubs, the tide pods and king flings come in for, food, drug and mass from we were in opaque PT, plastic, which was not curbside recyclable, and we've made the move to high density polyethylene, which is curbside recyclable and we get the benefits of It's a big step for us on our journey to 100 percent of the packaging being recyclable. But he also gave us a bit of a reduction in carbon footprint as we make the packaging. And it just lines up well with how we think about the number 1. we want to deliver on the consumer experience. That's an example where the experience didn't change for them from a, the way the package works, but it certainly helps consumers feel better about right. I'm buying something that now I can recycle and it can have a 2nd life. It also lines up with just our technical strategies of let's make sure what we've got is recyclable and it's easily recyclable materials. We do a lot of focus on HDPE and clear PT and also include. High levels of PCR. So recycled material into the packaging so that there's a healthy recycle stream of we're buying it back and putting it into our packaging as well. So really trying to, drive circularity of the plastics that we have out there and make everything we have recyclable.

Cory Connors: 21:05

That's it. That's the key. That's the whole issue here. And I think you are a leader in the industry and I want to thank you and your team for what you're doing. Well, thank

Todd Cline: 21:16

you so much. It's a, you say team that is for sure. it's a huge team effort behind it. Both all of our team that's working on it, but then also the partnerships we talked about. And I think that's the thing with what we're trying to tackle in the world from a sustainability standpoint is all of us just. It is a team sport, and we all need to be working together on how do we progress

Cory Connors: 21:36

it. Yeah, just like the NFL, right? We all gotta work together to win this game, which is, heal the planet. Yeah, well said. Well, how do people get in touch with you and your team, or find out more about B& G?

Todd Cline: 21:52

Yeah, so, certainly can follow, Our progress, for tide laundry on Instagram or tick talk, or go to the tide. com. We also have a lot there, particularly in Washington on cold for sure. more information. And then for, for P and G it's, PG. com or following Procter and Gamble on LinkedIn. we certainly update what we're doing from a sustainability standpoint there as well.

Cory Connors: 22:13

Well, thank you so much, Todd. This has been amazing. And I really appreciate your time and your wisdom. Thank you,

Todd Cline: 22:18

sir. Thank you so much for inviting me to join you.