Procter & Gamble to Make Iconic Brands Including Tide and Dawn with Wind Power

CINCINNATI, October 20, 2015 /3BL Media/ - Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced today plans to meet its electricity demands by using 100 percent wind power to make iconic Fabric & Home Care brands, such as Tide and Dawn. This is possible thanks to a new partnership with EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) which will see a new Texas based wind farm generate 370,000 MWh of electricity each year. The wind farm will be fully operational in December 2016.

The partnership was announced at the White House today, as P&G became a signatory of the ‘American Business Act on Climate Pledge’. As part of the pledge, P&G agreed to achieve 30 percent renewable energy to power its plants globally by 2020, with a long term vision to use 100 percent renewable energy. This comes on the heels of a September announcement where P&G committed to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020.

One of the key actions on the journey to rely more on renewable energy is to partner with EDF RE to build a wind farm in Cooke County, Texas. This will generate 370,000 MWh of electricity per year – enough to meet electricity demands for all of P&G’s North American Fabric & Home Care plants, where iconic brands such as Tide, Gain, Downy, Dawn, Cascade, Febreze, and Mr. Clean are produced.

The amount of power generated from the partnership will be equivalent to avoiding more than 200,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually. This equals one percent of the national annual reduction target for electricity emissions called for in the White House Clean Power Plan.

The electricity consumption of the plants makes up about half of their total energy consumption. The electricity will be exclusively generated by wind power. The plants will also continue to use natural gas for process heating and comfort heating during winter. 

Speaking about the project Shailesh Jejurikar, North America Fabric Care President, P&G, commented: “I am delighted that our collaboration with EDF RE continues to provide our consumers with their favorite, high performing brands while reducing our environmental footprint.”

He continued: “At P&G, when it comes to sustainability, actions speak louder than words and this move is a significant milestone in delivering that promise. It is incredible that the wind farm will generate enough electricity for all our P&G Fabric and Home Care plants; to put that in context: This is enough electricity to wash a million loads of laundry.”

Tristan Grimbert, CEO and President of EDF RE states:  “The participation of P&G to directly procure wind power is a concrete action that demonstrates their understanding of the benefits of renewable energy.  Wind not only emits zero greenhouse gas emissions, but also delivers long-term energy price stability,” he continues “P&G is leading one of the fastest growing markets in the renewable energy space and we are pleased to be their partner to reach their climate pledge goals.”

To celebrate the scale of the collaboration, P&G Fabric & Home Care and EDF RE have constructed a mini-wind farm in Washington DC. The installation is placed on the lawn in front of the Capitol Building and is made up of thousands of spinning pinwheels.  
 

###
 

About Procter & Gamble
P&G serves nearly five billion people around the world with its brands. The Company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, Wella® and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

About EDF RE
EDF Renewable Energy is a leading U.S. independent power producer with more than 25 years of expertise in the renewable industry, covering all range of services from project development, management to operations and maintenance.  EDF Renewable Energy specializes in wind and solar photovoltaic with presence in other segments of the renewable energy market: biogas, biomass, hydro, marine energy and storage solutions.  The company develops, constructs, operates and manages renewable energy projects throughout the United States for its own accord as well as for third parties.  EDF Renewable Energy’s North American portfolio consists of 6 gigawatts of developed projects with 3.2 gigawatts of installed capacity throughout US, Canada, and Mexico. EDF Renewable Energy is a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles. EDF Energies Nouvelles is the renewable energy arm of the EDF group, the leading electricity company in the world. For more information visit:  http://www.edf-re.com

Contact:

EDF RE Media Contact
Sandi Briner, +1 858 521 3525
Sandi.Briner@edf-re.com

P&G Media Contact
Victoria Barton, +447872 827 882
Victoria.Barton@ketchum.com