Sustaining Clean

In 2006, Walmart announced that it was taking action against 20 “chemicals of concern.” For starters, the retail giant told vendors it didn’t want products that contain three suspect chemicals: two pesticides and alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants. Suppliers would be asked to identify products that contain the unwanted chemicals and then lay out plans for replacing them.

At the Soap & Detergent Association’s (SDA) annual conference, held late last month in Orlando, Fla., Alberto Luis Dominguez, merchandise manager for household paper goods and chemicals at Walmart, informed attendees that the company has dropped the program. “We learned it was too heavy-handed an approach,” he explained. “Governments ban stuff. I’m not sure it’s Walmart’s role to go out and ban stuff.”

Dominguez’ acknowledgment of an about-face by the world’s largest retailer is telling of the difficulties businesses encounter as they tackle the challenge of becoming more sustainable. Companies that make or sell consumer products know that people are increasingly aware of the ingredients in their products and want them to be environmentally friendly.

But companies also know they must deliver these products to the consumer without sacrificing convenience, performance, or price. Dominguez said one of the lessons Walmart learned is that the evolution toward sustainable products will be more successful if it happens collaboratively, rather than by decree.

Executives at Procter & Gamble, the big detergents maker, agree that Walmart has recently become more collaborative with suppliers as it pursues sustainability. But Jack C. Ryan, vice president of P&G Chemicals, emphasized at a press briefing that the retailer has long worked with P&G. He pointed out that the industry’s 2006–07 shift to more concentrated liquid laundry detergents arose from a joint project between Walmart and P&G.

Because product compaction cuts packaging materials and truck emissions, it’s one of P&G’s signature sustainability efforts. And more is on the way, according to Kathy B. Fish, P&G’s vice president of fabric care R&D. Boxes of the firm’s powdered detergents will become smaller later this year, she said, and the company has almost completed the technical work needed for another round of liquid detergent compaction. Because some consumers will balk at tiny detergent bottles, success will require an industry-wide effort, she cautioned.

Another way to make detergents more sustainable, Fish said, is to make them as effective in cold water as in warm. Some people already buy Tide Coldwater, which contains specially tailored surfactants and enzymes, but Fish said the company needs “further breakthroughs in cleaning performance to drive everybody to cold water.”

The shift would be significant. By P&G’s calculation, if the U.S. adopted cold-water washing universally, the energy saved could light two-thirds of the country’s homes.

Lower on P&G’s list of sustainability efforts, but still important, are renewable raw materials, notably enzymes. “We have a strategy to try to reduce our petrochemicals and replace them with more mass-efficient catalytic chemistry,” Fish said.

P&G says it isn’t convinced of the environmental benefits of a completely natural detergent, but Fish pointed out that the firm has taken a step in that direction in Japan with its new Sarasa liquid detergent. Marketed as additive-free, Sarasa doesn’t contain any bleaches, colorants, or fluorescent whitening agents.

Chemical company executives at the conference said sustainable cleaning products are, indeed, top of mind for customers such as P&G. In particular, making surfactants work in highly concentrated formulas is a challenge, noted Dale Steichen, vice president of research and technology at AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry.

“Surfactants form complex structures, and when they are concentrated, those structures have some interesting physical properties, such as being a gel or crystallizing or having multiple phases,” he said. “It gets very complicated as you take the water out.”

If sustainability is important for P&G, it’s the raison d’être for Seventh Generation, the small but fast-growing marketer of all-natural cleaning products. Tim Fowler, vice president of product R&D for the firm, was at the SDA meeting to talk with suppliers and potential suppliers about ingredients that meet Seventh Generation’s strict requirements.

Fowler noted with some amusement that top executives at big chemical companies want to talk to him and his colleague Reed Doyle, director of global strategic sourcing, even though their main products are synthetic chemicals, which he doesn’t buy. “Obviously our business model is working, and others are following,” he said.

Fowler and Reed are happy to oblige, but they ask for the ultimate in collaboration from the chemical makers they meet. “What we are selling is a relationship, transparency, and trust,” he said. “If I’m selling that to a customer, I need it from my supplier.”