Water is essential for the use and production of P&G products, and they are doing their part to protect it for people and nature by focusing on the areas where they can make a positive impact. Over the last decade, P&G’s water stewardship program has evolved alongside their growing understanding of the complex challenges facing the world’s water resources. Their latest Ambition 2030 environmental sustainability goals related to water have expanded past the four walls of the facilities to protect water in 18 basins in seven countries facing water stress. They are working with many partners to scale their response to the size of the challenge and protect water for people and nature where it matters most. More details about P&G’s commitment to water can be found here.
How They Inspire
The Lower American Basin, part of the Sacramento River Basin in northern California, is one of P&G’s 18 priority basins. In July 2020, they embarked on a pilot to test a strategic approach for identifying and holistically addressing water challenges in priority basins while delivering tangible progress against their Ambition 2030 sustainability goal to protect water for people and nature in priority basins. Knowing that water issues will not wait for the pilot to be completed, P&G is also working with its brands to support projects providing water benefits in other priority basins. This includes one of P&G’s leading brands, Cascade. The brand is bringing water conservation and stewardship to life through consumer engagement campaigns like “Do it Every Night” and #ReThinkTheSink and supporting meaningful on-the-ground projects across the United States. Learn more here.
The Impact They’re Making
P&G partnered with Business for Water Stewardship (BWS), a program of BEF, to pilot their approach in the Sacramento River Basin. BWS solicited proposals for water stewardship projects in the basin. Twelve project proposals were received and six projects were selected for funding. Combined, these six projects expect to restore over three billion liters of water to people and nature. The selected projects address challenges across the basin – from the forested headwaters through the agricultural fields of the middle watershed and down into the urban areas of the lower basin. The project portfolio delivers over 10 distinct co-benefits to the community, such as improved water quality, flood risk reduction, reduced risk of catastrophic wildfire, carbon sequestration, and improved habitat for native and migrating species.
The Sacramento project portfolio includes:
- Brayton Restoration
- Sycamore Slough Groundwater Recharge
- Crystal Basin Forest Restoration
- East Sand Slough Side Channel Reconnection
- Sacramento Landscape Efficiency
- Shorebird Habitat Creation
P&G is also supporting projects in other priority basins in the U.S., including:
- Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) System Conservation
- Multi-Family Housing Leak Detection Project
Cascade is one of the first P&G brands to address the issue of water scarcity through relevant consumer messaging and impactful on-the-ground projects. The brand is supporting eight projects through their Change the Course sponsorship that will restore over 600 million liters of water across watersheds in the United States.
The Cascade project portfolio includes:
