The Power Of Purpose: How Virginie Helias And P&G Are Making Sustainability 'Irresistible'
P&G's Chief Sustainability Officer Virginie Helias's journey to sustainability began with her being faced with a challenge when she was leading the detergent business in Europe in the 2000s with their lead brand Ariel down for three years in a row. Virginie and her team discovered that the leading messaging that connected with consumers was the fact that Ariel could wash clothes in low temperature leading to lower electricity bills. That kickstarted the business again- and along with the arrival of Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ led to Helias lobbying P&G leadership to create a Global Sustainability Director role for herself. “So I basically started from scratch with a single mission, which was to embed sustainability into everything we were doing, all business practices, all innovation, brand building, and really the culture of the company. And I've been at it for the past eight years,” said Helias.
