THE SUSTAINABILITY INTERVIEW
Once the challenge had been overcome, Colgate-Palmolive shared the technology with other tube makers, which Ann views as part of its broader responsibility to help drive industry change.
“ We also hired a third party in the US to measure the progress of all tubes, not just Colgate tubes, and we’ ve reached a critical mass in the US where we started the rollout, which is important as we try to encourage scale,” Ann says.
Climate and supply chains The climate challenge continues to grow in complexity for companies like Colgate-Palmolive as standards and regulations change quickly.
Colgate-Palmolive has Science Based Targets initiative-approved net zero targets and aims to be net zero carbon by 2040, using 2020 as its baseline year.
When it comes to Scope 2, Colgate- Palmolive has entered a solar VPPA that covers the equivalent of 100 % of its electricity needs in the US with renewable electricity, and in Europe, an offshore wind farm in Finland covers approximately 60 %.“ Those two levers have driven terrific progress towards our Scope 2,” Ann celebrates.
Ann says Scope 3 emissions are harder still, because they depend heavily on purchased goods and services, especially materials and packaging suppliers. That means climate progress is tightly linked to procurement, manufacturing and supplier engagement.
“ It’ s an evolving space, but we’ re committed to driving impact and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions globally through our value chain,” Ann says.
A tougher definition of success There are two sides to success for the future of the Colgate-Palmolive sustainability strategy.
The first is achieving the targets. The second comes with the value driven for the wider company.
“ Success is articulated through the lens of growth and resilience,” Ann explains.“ We’ ve matured to a point where we’ re articulating why achieving, for example, Scope 2 goals are important to the business, because by achieving 42 % reduction in Scope 1 and 2, we saved X amount of it, or avoided Y amount of utility costs, or had less shutdowns because of energy disruption or whatever the case may be.
“ There’ s numerous examples like that where we can articulate why it’ s good for the business. The ultimate sustainability goal for Ann begins at the start of a product journey, in sustainable design.
“ We’ re not selling products based on sustainability, we are delivering more sustainable innovation, but in a way that people delight in using our products, because they’ re more fun to use, better to use, have better fragrance, have better long-lasting performance, whatever the case may be, because sustainability has enabled that.”
28 July 2026