As well as P&G's efforts to continually improve its operations' environmental profile, you, as consumers, can help to make a considerable difference to the environment, for the better.
If you look at the level of energy consumption for a typical P&G product, across its entire lifecycle (from manufacture to use), it turns out that the biggest impact on the environment comes the moment you set your washing machine or dishwasher to 60 degrees.
So P&G is trying to make sure you don't have to. A growing range of P&G products can provide optimal results at low temperatures, meaning you won't pay so much in electricity and the carbon emissions from washing will be reduced.
In Europe, for example, washing clothes at reduced temperatures could save three per cent of the electricity used by a household.
Here's why: washing appliances account for about 12 per cent of a household's energy consumption and, on average, 60 per cent of the electricity they use is purely for heating up water (this rises to 85 per cent for a 90 degree cycle).
Now, a washing cycle at 40 degrees consumes nearly twice as much energy as one at 20 degrees. A cycle at 60 degrees consumes three times as much. And just by turning a wash from 40 to 30 degrees you can save 41 per cent of the energy used per cycle.
P&G's Ariel CoolWash and Dash 'Impeccabile a Freddo', as well as the other Ariel and Dash brands such as Actif à Froid in France and Aktief in Koud Water in Belgium and the Netherlands, offer energy savings of up to 33 per cent thanks to ingredients that are active at reduced wash temperatures.
Thus, if everyone in Italy used Dash Impeccabile a Freddo to reduce their washing temperature by one click - say from 40 degrees to 30 - the energy saved would be enough to light up the most beautiful squares across the country.
Put another way, by turning down the dial on your washing machine, for example from 40 to 30 degrees, you could save nearly half of the energy you use in a normal load. And you can still be sure your laundry will be brilliantly clean.