Corporations can play a significant role in addressing climate change says Len Sauers, Vice President, Global Product Stewardship & Sustainability at Procter & Gamble, in an exclusive interview for Climate TV.
Just ahead of joining RE100 during Climate Week NYC in September this year, where it committed to using 100% renewable electricity, the manufacturing giant also announced a goal to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020, with a 2010 baseline.
The company aims to source 30% of its energy from renewables by the same year – which Sauers says will happen “even if our business grows by tens of billions of dollars”.
Sauers says energy efficiency and conservation has saved Procter & Gamble as much as US$350 million over the past five years. But now, “the long-hanging fruit has been picked, and it’s becoming harder and harder to reduce emissions just based on conservation. Now, the next step-change comes from switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy. And that’s why we’re putting so much emphasis on the drive to renewable energy.”
The company strategy has been to make all its work in the sustainability field an opportunity to build its business, with the ultimate goal to make this growth responsible by uncoupling it from emissions, Sauers explains. “Renewable energy is the way to do that […] I still see great business opportunity in that.”
“With all that’s happening today around governments coming together talking about reducing emissions, there’s an uncertainty into the future about what types of policies may pass to curb fossil fuel based emissions. A company that is driving toward renewables, that has that flexibility and nimbleness between these two sources, would be better positioned to handle that uncertainty.”
Procter & Gamble is investing heavily in renewable energy. Last March, the company announced the development of a 50MW biomass plant in Albany, Georgia, that will help run one of its largest manufacturing facilities in the US. The plant will provide 100% of the steam, and up to 60-70% of the total energy used by the company’s facility nearby, which is “probably one of our most energy-intensive facilities,” explains Sauers. “We’re moving that to 100% renewable electricity: that single project will give us [globally] 7% renewable energy.”
The biomass development in Georgia “is only happening because we’ve been able to form partnerships that are helping to drive scale,” says Sauers. “That’s going to be the key to the future, it’s being able to drive that scale through partnerships.
“By joining RE100, we are finding the resources and expertise that can help us. It also helps us link to like-minded companies, from which we can partner with and create the scale.”
Curbing emissions has now become a major driver for Procter & Gamble: “We had goals we’ve set over the years, and they’ve largely been what we wanted to do.” […] “As we move to a science-based goal, the 30%, that’s a goal based on what we should do. “I think the key message to corporations is historically you did what you wanted to do, now you should be doing what you should do.”