P&G Korea adopts Life Cycle Assessment methods for sustainability
P&G Korea ESG Leader Daisy Ye speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of P&G Korea
By Kim Jae-heun
Global household goods maker P&G Korea announced it will adopt Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies as its new approach to tackle the climate crisis and achieve sustainability during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday.
The event was designed to introduce LCA in detail and to share the company's efforts in related fields while encouraging consumers to engage in eco-friendly practices in their daily lives.
Tak Heo, professor of Chemical Engineering at Konkuk University and president of Korea Academy of Environmental Science, presented first, introducing the current trends in global environmental sustainability business.
To achieve true carbon neutrality, Heo stressed the need for a transition from existing linear systems of “production-consumption-disposal” to a cyclical system, which repeats “production-consumption-collection-recycling.”
The professor introduced LCA as a new paradigm for the transition to a circular system. LCA measures and evaluates environmental impacts in each stage of a product's process and attempts to make changes for improvement.
“Unlike traditional policies that only manage carbon emissions in the workplace and supply chain, the recent global trend is to introduce an environmental policy that encompasses the entire process from product manufacture to product disposal,” Heo said.
P&G Korea ESG Leader Daisy Ye shared some examples of what the company is practicing currently.
Earlier in 2021, the household goods maker set a “zero greenhouse gas emissions” as a goal by 2040 and it has been working from an LCA perspective to achieve this.
The company reviews the entire process of products from manufacture to disposal and develops new items that can effectively reduce carbon emissions.
P&G indicated its Downy Deep Clean laundry detergent is an exemplary sustainable product.
“The product has excellent washing power ― even in cold water, so it can save up to 90 percent power consumption compared to when washing in hot water. It also saves up to 60 liters of water by reducing rinsing steps to a single instance,” Ye said.