Sustainability Transformation of a Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Company: P&G Case Study

Becoming sustainable is no longer an option for organisations but rather a prerequisite for remaining competitive, as sustainability has become a critical success factor. Integrating environmental stewardship and fostering a green mindset alongside profitability not only benefits nature but also enhances a company's image to potential clients and consumers. Environmental sustainability has thus become mandatory to achieve competitive advantage for companies, attracting a growing number of investors, clients, and consumers. Therefore, it is crucial to implement long-term sustainability solutions and strategies within organisations. Controlling emissions of harmful and polluting gases, efficiently using energy, raw materials, water resources, and recycling waste products and packaging are some viable solutions for making a company sustainable. Additionally, a company's sustainability also depends on its employees. Enhancing their awareness of sustainability issues is also critical. To contribute to a company's sustainability transformation, this thesis outlines a methodology for engaging the corporate team of a multinational organization in sustainability topics through corporate sustainability trainings. It also addresses the importance of assessing the environmental impact of product packaging redesign initiatives by providing a methodology for designing a process that includes specific tools for calculating, tracking, and visualizing these initiative impacts. The case study of the American multinational P&G is then presented. The described methodologies are specifically applied to P&G's ESS department, demonstrating the benefits of the developed training programs and the tools for assessing the environmental profile of packaging redesign initiatives. Furthermore, these tools are applied to three real packaging redesign projects. For two out of the three analysed products, compared to the current scenario, the packaging redesign solutions show substantial improvements in both CO2e emissions and carton usage, with annual savings of approximately 186 and 197 tons, respectively. The third packaging redesign initiative shows a slight upgrade in CO2e emissions but a significant 40% reduction in annual plastic consumption. This thesis seeks to emphasize the benefits for companies in implementing these strategies, demonstrating how they can serve as a foundational step towards achieving a more sustainable supply chain.