MARK STALMANS
Procter & Gamble, Belgium
Member of Household and Personal Care Today’s Scientific Advisory Board

Looking around at cleaning product companies, associations, stakeholder networks, policy developments, there is broad scale recognition of the need to address the major challenges posed by climate change and resource scarcity. In this editorial, I argue how each of us can help to accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable cleaning products industry.

ASSESSING THE LANDSCAPE
Fortunately, policies and strategies are increasingly based on lifecycle insights, assessing impacts holistically across all lifecycle phases. The lifecycle flows of textiles, washing appliances and laundry detergents cross each other when consumers use washing machines and detergents to clean their garments. The consumer use phase contributes more than 70% of the lifecycle impact of laundry detergents, more than 70% for the textile lifecycle and more than 80% for the washing machine lifecycle, explaining why consumer behavior is such an important focal points.  Lifecycle studies show that is also very im ...