FOREWORD
Sustainability comes down to asking the right questions Colgate-Palmolive is one of the world ’ s biggest companies yet is making impressive headway on sustainability . How ? By asking the right questions .
There are few easy wins in sustainability , a reality that is made clear in an interview in this issue with Colgate- Palmolive ’ s Chief Supply Chain Officer , Mike Corbo .
“ Unless organisations ask the right questions on sustainability they can ’ t expect to deliver meaningful solutions ”
MIKE CORBO CHIEF SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER ,
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE
Colgate ’ s ambition is to ensure all its facilities – manufacturing sites , technology centres , strategic offices and owned warehouses – are ‘ zero waste ’ by 2025 .
For a multinational with 34,000 staff across 200 countries , and net sales of US $ 17.4bn , this is a colossal undertaking . So how is it tackling the challenge ?
“ You ’ d be surprised ,” says Corbo , with a grin . “ It sounds kind of silly , but we started pretty much by doing dumpster dives – literally rifling through what we were putting in the waste stream .”
Corbo adds : ” We began to separate all that waste and then we started asking questions , such as why this or that piece of waste was not in the product , or why it wasn ’ t being recycled .”
Only by doing this , has Colgate been able to determine what is in its waste stream .
Corbo ’ s revelations drive home this truth : unless an organisation asks itself the right questions on sustainability , it can never expect to deliver meaningful solutions .
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