Atypical Ep. #7: Responsible Beauty
Happy April Definers! We’re back this month with a special bonus episode about P&G Responsible Beauty, sponsored by Procter & Gamble (P&G). Through Responsible Beauty, P&G has committed to being a positive force for beauty in the world as they work to create a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient future for all.
In this episode, we have a “beautiful” conversation with John Scarchilli, Director, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Scientific Communications, about how brands like Herbal Essences, Head & Shoulders and Olay are building sustainability into superior product designs, leveraging P&G’s Responsible Beauty principles. We cover everything from responsible sourcing, to the reduction of virgin plastic use, inclusive design and more. Hope you’ll take a listen!
Sustainability Defined would like to thank Procter & Gamble for sponsoring this episode. To learn more about P&G’s Responsible Beauty program, go to us.pg.com/responsible-beauty.
Atypical Episode 7: Responsible Beauty
Outline
Overview of the Responsible Beauty Program at P&G
Discussion with John Scarchilli, Director, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Scientific Communications
Overview of the Responsible Beauty Program at P&G
P&G has worked diligently to embed sustainability into how they do business. The company’s Ambition 2030 is the global sustainable business strategy that supports P&G’s global brands. The foundation of Ambition 2030 is improving the livelihoods of people across P&G’s operations, in the supply chain, and within communities they serve. The strategy is based around 4 pillars: Climate, Waste, Water, and Nature.
Speaking of that water pillar, be sure to check out Episode 73 on Water Conservation, also sponsored by P&G!
Within these pillars, P&G is working across the global organization on ambitious targets like:
Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions across their operations and supply chain
Working to design all of their consumer packaging to be recyclable or reusable
Collaborating to help build a water positive future
And, ensuring responsible sourcing of key raw materials.
P&G’s Ambition 2030 Goals are the foundational goals of all P&G brands, and the Responsible Beauty Program underscores the company’s commitment to sustainability. Through Responsible Beauty, P&G has committed to being a positive force for beauty in the world as they work to create a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient future for all. The company believes in a future where beauty products offer superior value to people and are sustainable; where no one should have to make trade-offs between products that are good for themselves, for society, or for the planet.
The Responsible Beauty Initiative has 5 interconnected guiding principles that all beauty brands within the company, like Olay, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, and Herbal Essence, are focusing on to make meaningful progress. These principles are:
Quality and Performance
Safety
Sustainability
Transparency, and
Equality and Inclusion.
Within the Herbal Essence product line as an example, let’s discuss a few of the ways the brand is incorporating these principles.
First, we have an example that relates to the ingredient identification and transparency principle. Through a partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of the world’s leading botanical institutions with more than 260 years of experience in plant science, located just outside of London, the Herbal Essence team is working with leading scientists to ensure that there are real botanicals in every bottle of the product. The Herbal Essence team also supported the work of the Royal Botanic Gardens by donating funds to help replant 200,000 trees in 2022.
Now we have one for you related to the equality and inclusion principle. Recently, the team introduced inclusive design into their packaging through the introduction of tactile packaging for those with visual-impairment. The aim here was to make hair care easier for vision-impaired people by using tactile markings on the packaging, making it easier to distinguish between the shampoo and conditioner products via touch.
Within the sustainability principle, the hair care line is working to use less virgin plastic within the product packaging through partnership within their packaging supply chain. Currently, the majority of Herbal Essence shampoo and conditioner bottles incorporate recycled plastic.
If you want more background/info on sustainable beauty and personal care products, listen back to Episode 35: Sustainable Beauty and Personal Care Products with Danielle Azoulay (L'Oreal USA).
About Our Guest - John Scarchilli
John is the Director, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Scientific Communications. John has been with P&G since 2003. So, he has a long history with the company through various roles such as in global scientific communications and engineering.
John has his BS in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University and his MBA from Xavier University’s Williams College of Business.