Is the future of sustainability low-tech or high-tech? For P&G, it’s both.

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a tree? This past January, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, I had the chance to find out. Through a multi-sensory VR experience, I felt what it is like to grow, live and die as a tree, and it blew me away. It was an extraordinary, first-hand example of how technology has the power to reshape our ecological conscience in a way that inspires more sustainable behaviors.

Multi-sensory virtual reality tree experience at the 2020 WEF Annual Meeting

I have heard many people express unwavering optimism about our human ability to meet planetary challenges because they believe technology will come to the rescue. There is no denying that high-tech solutions – new, cutting edge innovations – have the potential to significantly reduce, and in some cases reverse, our impact on the planet. If you need an example, look no further than the emerging carbon capture technologies that promise a future where we can catch and store CO2, instead of allowing it to get trapped in our atmosphere and accelerate climate change.

And yet, low-tech solutions remain essential. Without them, our efforts to tackle sustainability challenges and drive meaningful change won’t succeed. For many years, the prevailing belief was that the only way to combat climate change was to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by moving away from fossil fuels and investing in renewable energy technology.

Now, we know that more is needed. Scientific data tells us that protecting and restoring nature can provide up to 30% of the GHG reduction needed to limit the average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. If we’re going to flatten the climate curve and build a more sustainable future, we must harness the very best high-tech and low-tech solutions available to us.

How P&G is taking action

At P&G, we’ve historically relied more on high-tech solutions, but we are increasingly recognizing the value of investing in both. We’ve seen firsthand that some of the largest and most powerful drivers of change are the seemingly small, daily actions people take in their homes to save water, use less energy or reduce waste.

Here are some ways we’re leveraging both low-tech and high-tech solutions at P&G to drive sustainable innovation:

Climate

• We are using a mix of renewable energy sources – including wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower – to reach our goal of purchasing 100% renewable electricity globally by 2030. Our largest individual contributors are our wind farm partnership in Tyler Bluff, Texas and our onsite combined heat and power biomass facility in Albany, Georgia.
• We are advancing a portfolio of natural climate solutions projects around the world that protect, improve and restore nature as part of our commitment to being carbon neutral for the decade across our global operations. Initial projects include protecting mangroves in the Palawan region of the Philippines, restoring the Atlantic Forest in Brazil and enabling reforestation after deadly fires in Northern California.

Mangroves in Palawan, Philippines. P&G is partnering with Conservation International to protect, improve and restore Palawan’s critical ecosystems, including mangroves.

Water

• We spearheaded the 50 Liter Home Coalition, which is bringing together companies, policymakers, partners and communities to develop and scale innovations for the home that help solve the urban water crisis and address household energy consumption and associated GHG emissions at the same time. In addition to driving public-private collaboration, this multi-stakeholder platform is generating new water management solutions that enable more resource-efficient, circular households.
• Our Cascade dishwashing brand is on a mission to educate people about the small, everyday actions they can take to conserve water. For example, did you know it’s more sustainable to run your dishwasher with as few as eight dishes, instead of handwashing them? And thanks to Cascade, there’s no need to prewash in the sink, allowing you to save even more water.

Circularity

• The current global recycling system is simply insufficient and we must put our resources behind identifying better collection, sorting, recycling and reclaiming solutions and bringing them to market. That’s where Holy Grail comes in – a collaboration amongst 85+ companies and organizations, led by P&G’s own Gian DeBelder, to solve one of the largest obstacles facing plastic recycling: ineffective sorting at recycling facilities. Over the past three years, we have worked with our partners to devise a more consistent and scalable tagging system across all packages, which will be rolled out to national test markets.
• Creating a more circular, closed-loop world isn’t possible without consumers understanding when, where and how to recycle. That’s why we joined the On-Pack Recycling Label partnership in the UK and the How2Recycle label system in the U.S., both of which are designed to make it easier for customers to recycle, reducing the volume of waste sent to landfill. By implementing clearer instructions on P&G packaging, we’re enabling more responsible consumption and driving resource efficiency.

Years before my VR experience in Davos, I participated in a week-long residential leadership program in the United Kingdom. The objective was to better understand how much nature can teach us about leadership. For one of the sessions, we each dug a hole in the forest and “planted” ourselves, staying put as a “tree” for what felt like an hour. It was a powerful experience – a visceral reminder of the enduring importance and fragility of nature, and our responsibility to steward it well.

Without this feet-in-the-dirt experience, I don’t think my Davos VR tree experience would have had the same impact. But together, they were powerful. So it goes for finding solutions to our planetary challenges. By finding the right, complementary blend between high- and low-tech solutions, we can drive the greatest innovation, change our lifestyles, and ultimately, make the biggest impact.