Colgate-Palmolive
At a Glance
Industry
Consumer Packaged Goods
Project Type
Commercial Energy Efficiency
Year
2019
Location
Piscataway, NJ
Summary
Meredith Ledbetter worked with Colgate-Palmolive Company to create a roadmap for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and achieving the USGBC’s WELL Building Certification.
Goals
Colgate-Palmolive Company is a consumer products company focused on oral care, home care, personal care and pet nutrition products. Colgate-Palmolive enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Meredith Ledbetter to create implementation plans for two main projects. The electric vehicle (EV) project focused on developing a global rollout plan for additional Colgate-Palmolive facilities to install EV charging stations and the other project focused on researching the feasibility of the Global Technology Center achieving the WELL Building Certification.
Solutions
To address the EV project, Ledbetter first reviewed the charging stations installed at the Colgate Global Technology Center in Piscataway, New Jersey and identified lessons learned from the installation process. The company hopes to expand this employee offering to additional facilities, thus Ledbetter researched industry best practices and EV infrastructure to compile a global rollout plan. Ledbetter identified a three-phase approach to bring EV charging stations to additional Colgate-Palmolive facilities worldwide, including in Switzerland, China, Mexico, and several sites in South America. Ledbetter also studied the feasibility of Colgate-Palmolive to achieve a building certification standard that specifically addresses employee health inside buildings. The US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) WELL Certification seeks to ensure that these buildings foster optimal air and water quality, encourage movement, provide nutritious food, and other health factors. A new version of the WELL Building Certification was recently released, and Ledbetter worked internally with HR, facilities, safety, and sustainability teams to determine if Colgate-Palmolive could achieve certification. Through her research, she identified three areas for Colgate to invest in order to achieve WELL certification.
Potential Impact
By implementing the electric vehicle and WELL building certification projects, Colgage-Palmolive can increase their sustainability efforts worldwide. Tackling both environmental and social sustainability is key for a large consumer-packaged goods company and to recruit top talent. Installing electric vehicle charging stations both helps to lower the footprint of Colgate employees, and offers a desirable employee benefit. The WELL building certification can help document how Colgate employees in a facility have access to a healthy workplace.