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Rubbermaid Commercial Products LLC (RCP), part of the Newell Brands global portfolio of brands, has launched its brand sustainability vision with a roadmap outlining global, tangible pledges the organisation is making as it continues its journey toward operating as sustainably as possible.
As of 2019, 59% of businesses claimed to have internal sustainability initiatives in place[1]. Pressured by their customers and staff into being demonstrably ‘green’, without transparency and clear definitions of ‘green’, confusion about which practices are actually sustainable can frustrate businesses and consumers alike.
Scientists are increasingly focusing on what effect humans are having on extinction rates[2], the legacy of acid rain is manifest in acidic oceans[3] and particles of plastic can now be found in human blood[4]. People see these news stories every day and are pressuring businesses to do more.
Through its Love Sustainability Journey, RCP is creating transparent conversation around sustainable practices and goals. The Love Sustainability Journey charts a plan for progress.
“Our Love Sustainability Journey is the first step to engaging our customers, regarding everything that Rubbermaid Commercial Products is doing globally to ensure we operate as sustainably as we can,”
explained Mike McDermott, CEO of the Commercial Group at Newell Brands.
RCP is dedicated to being part of a concerted sustainability effort across the business world not just through its products, but through vital education and sustainability tools.
As a global leader in the design, manufacturing and delivery of cleaning, hygiene and waste management products, RCP has a significant sustainability role to play at both ends of the process: protecting resources and reducing waste.
Mapping a path across five key areas – Products, Certification and Innovation, Packaging, Operations, Culture and Education – the Sustainability Journey begins the important process of outlining how RCP and other businesses can make incremental gains.
Identifying quantifiable and clear targets is key to RCP’s approach. In addition to aligning itself with Newell Brands’ Corporate Citizenship Goals, RCP is also committing to developing and tracking goals specifically related to its product portfolio, and the associated operations, packaging and certification.
Newell Brands’ packaging goals, for example, include a 2025 target for 100% of direct-sourced paper-based packaging to come from certified, verified or recycled sources. This specific goal sits alongside six key sustainability actions for product design, which include ‘system efficiency’, supporting the reduction of resource waste throughout each phase of a product’s lifecycle.
Developing long-lasting products is also central to RCP’s Sustainability Journey. McDermott continued: ‘’RCP has a heritage of developing highly durable products that stand the test of time. This equates to less re-manufacture, less transport and less storage than lower quality alternative products that frequently need replacing. All of which is better for the planet. We know, as a manufacturing business, we can’t stop there.’’
Reducing waste to landfill by 90% is another ambitious Newell Brands 2025 target, which RCP plans to support at its own operations locations.
These tangible goals are underscored by RCP‘s Culture and Education Journey target to hold itself to account by issuing its first Sustainability Annual Report in 2023. A very real way of monitoring progress, the Culture and Education Journey ensures that the team has a shared understanding of RCP’s sustainability goals: environmental education plays a vital role across the organisation.
McDermott concluded: “Newell’s Values constitute Truth, Transparency, Teamwork and Trust, all of which we intend to provide through our journey.
“Investing in sustainable solutions is not only the right thing to do, but is imperative to the long-term value and viability of our resources, our people, our communities and our business.”
At RCP, we believe that when businesses raise the tide of sustainability, we are all elevated by it. Let’s do this together.
The Love Sustainability Journey is now available to download. For more information about sustainability at Newell Brands, read the 2021 Corporate Citizenship Report.
[1] https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/us32959-industry-4-0/DI_Industry4.0.pdf
[2] www.researchgate.net/profile/Nigel-Stork/publication/225546103_Re-assessing_current_extinction_rates/links/00b49525daa5bd1dba000000/Re-assessing-current-extinction-rates.pdf
[3] https://climatekids.nasa.gov/acid-ocean
[4] www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022001258
