Laundry’s Carbon Footprint
To do this Ariel has focused on ensuring it can deliver a superior clean in colder water, whilst also committing the brand’s voice to encourage small habit changes such as lowering wash temperatures. The brand is also working towards establishing a sustainable supply chain with industry and suppliers, as well as partnering for innovation.
The first milestone in this journey is the roll out of Ariel’s pan-European consumer engagement campaign, “Every Degree Makes a Difference” in content partnership with National Geographic Creative Works, to demonstrate that through turning down our washing cycle temperature we can together reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The campaign, which is already launched in Germany and is coming to France this week, seeks to achieve a five degree drop in average wash temperatures in Europe by 2025.
Ariel’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) found that on average in Europe 60% of the environmental footprint of laundry comes when the product is being used, mainly from the energy used to heat the water. Lowering the wash temperature is the single most important thing we can all do to reduce the environmental impact of laundry. Through short films and emotive images created by National Geographic Creative Works, the campaign highlights the impact of global warming on the arctic regions and brings to life that we can all make an impact on our planet.
As part of its 2030 Ambition, Ariel is pursuing a sustainable supply chain through analysing the ingredients with highest CO2 potential in its formula and exploring alternative sourcing, working closely with its suppliers. The brand is looking into partnerships to find new solutions that help further decarbonise its value chain, including novel sources of carbon and new models for recycling.
“Serving five billion people gives our brands the unique opportunity to promote conversations, influence attitudes and change behaviour,” comments Virginie Helias, Chief Sustainability Officer at Procter & Gamble. “Ariel cleans impeccably in cold water and enables us to switch down the wash temperature when doing the laundry. With this we can all unite on the journey to decarbonise laundry across the entire value chain, helping the climate without compromising on cleaning performance.”
Ariel’s core purpose is to reinvent clean to drive progress, and its expanded Ambition announced today is underpinned by a wide range of other actions it is taking to ensure the interconnected sustainability challenges we all face are being addressed. These include circular packaging, responsibly sourced and less carbon intensive ingredients, and establishing an even more efficient supply chain among others. On the societal side, Ariel continues to advocate how laundry is not only a woman’s job, but the responsibility of everyone in the household.
Ariel is one of P&G’s leading brands, and the Brand Ambition announcement is part of the overall commitment from P&G for 100% of their leadership brands to enable and inspire responsible consumption by 2030 as part of the company’s Ambition 2030 sustainability goals.
About Every Degree Makes a Difference Campaign
“Every Degree Makes a Difference” is a campaign being run by Ariel that aims to educate consumers on the benefits of turning their washing machines down and doing their laundry at lower temperatures. The campaign has been designed to educate consumers on the following key information: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ariel-every-degree-makes-a-difference/
The Life Cycle Assessment of a fabric care detergent clearly signifies that the environmental footprint is only 40% product related versus up to 60% usage related at home when people use the washing machine (50% from heating the water, data is based on the average for European region).
