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5.1.2011 Major brand owners go green

Brand owners such as Procter & Gamble, Nike and Microsoft are focusing on enhancing their green credentials. Procter & Gamble, the FMCG giant, has established targets like powering plants solely with renewable energy, only utilising renewable or recycled materials in manufacturing and reducing the waste going to landfill to zero. "It was in 1956 that we published our first paper evaluating the environmental safety of the products we were using at the time. We pioneered the concept of life-cycle development," Len Sauers, Procter's vp, global sustainability, told The National.

PepsiCo's US beverage arm is seeking to recycle 20m pounds of bottles and cans this year through the Dream Machine programme. It is also rolling out new, low-carbon agricultural techniques when growing oranges included in Tropicana, and extending its use of recycled content for containers.

Elsewhere, Microsoft has embarked on similar processes to integrate the sustainability agenda into each element of corporate governance. Sportswear specialist Nike has also sought to foster a collective response by building the GreenXChange, an information-sharing hub, and the Environmental Apparel Design Tool, assessing the ecological impact of potential launches.

B.L. 5.1.2011