Inside the tool guiding Kenvue’s sustainability-focused product development
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Kenvue already surpassed its 2025 goal of reducing its virgin plastic use by 25%, hitting a 33% reduction as brands like Listerine and Aveeno switch to more post-consumer recycled plastic.
But the company isn’t stopping there; it has also deployed a new tool to center sustainability in its research and development.
Kevnue this summer shared the methodology behind its Sustainability Innovation Profiler, a software tool developed in-house that gives it a real-time assessment of how sustainable a product is. It crunches more than 1,300 equations to come up with scores around an existing product’s environmental footprint, carbon footprint, green chemistry makeup and packaging circularity.
Oliver Price, Kenvue’s R&D global head of product resiliency and sustainability, said in an interview with Modern Retail that the tool helps the company put sustainability front and center in the design process; it’s right up there with the “material trilemma” alongside performance and cost.
“We now have integrated dashboards to be able to show [research and development teams] the results of the project, but also at the portfolio level, to their senior leaders,” he said in an interview with Modern Retail. “As we get more and more data, you can see where things are struggling and where things are doing well. And then the senior leaders are able to say, ‘Well, why is that fair? Why do we keep doing poorly on the green chemistry metric? Why do we keep doing this?’ or ‘How do we do better on the packaging circularity metric?’ So it’s enabling a discussion at different levels within the organization.”
More broadly, though, it points to how one of the world’s biggest consumer health companies — Kenvue makes Tylenol, Neutrogena and other household brands — is thinking about its environmental impact from a data-driven point of view. The tool is part of the company’s “Healthy Lives Mission” that includes ambitious goals like:
- Reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 42% by 2030 from a 2020 base year;
- Improving the environmental performance of at least 75% of its portfolio by 2023;
- Using 100% renewable electricity for operations by 2030
Price joined Kenvue about three years ago after roles with companies like Reckitt and Unilever. At that time, the charge was to build more sustainability initiatives within the R&D process.
“Previously, it had been very sporadic and project-based,” he said. “They had done some good work, but it wasn’t really consolidating the learnings and building a platform upon which the organization could grow and really look to embed that.”
So far, at least 600 product developers have undergone mandatory training on the tool and are using it to find improvements. Recently, Price said, the company has removed a pearlescent from Neutrogena shampoo that had a high carbon footprint, a move that instantly helped the product score higher on the tool.
It’s also using the profiler to help look at system-wide changes. For example, Price said there’s a known issue with bottle pumps not being recyclable due to the use of metal springs. “We know where the hot spot materials are in our projects that may have a higher carbon impact, and we can then have projects that are not necessarily brand- or project-specific, but portfolio-specific,” he said.
Other recent changes in the portfolio come from packaging changes, like Listerine using 50-100% more post-consumer recycled (PCR) bottles. Aveeno has transitioned all of its adult lotion and body wash bottles to PCR, which the company estimates saves about 300 metric tons of virgin plastic.
While the impact scores are proving useful, they don’t account for external conditions like climate change, new regulations, tariffs or global trade patterns. Consumers and retailers, especially those in Europe, are increasingly looking at products from an emissions standpoint. Investors, meanwhile, may want to see companies “future-proof” around chemical or packaging regulations. That’s a challenge, and Price said the goal in the coming years will be to find ways to “track and triage new demands.”
But for now, the hope is to use the profiler to improve product-specific impact and share that with the wider manufacturing community. Kenvue published an abridged methodology of the patent-pending Sustainability Innovation Profiler to share how the tool is constructed with others in the industry (though specific data and scores for its own products are under wraps).
“We’ve had a lot of questions and interest from peer groups and retailers alike, so we’ve started to share that more widely,” he said. “We’ve had lots of interest from a number of organizations wanting to know more, and it’s something we don’t want to hide away.”
The week in tariffs
- A fresh wave of tariffs is on its way, with the Trump administration placing tariffs of 10-12.5% on at least 60 countries. The action was announced Thursday just as an earlier 10% temporary global tariff was expiring.
- The tariffs are the result of a Section 301 investigation started in February around the alleged failure of countries to prevent the importation of goods produced with forced labor. The investigation began after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down earlier tariffs issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
- Some trade partners are calling the duties unjustified, per reporting from Reuters and NPR. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called the tariffs “extremely disappointing” in a post on X. “The US investigation did not provide meaningful evidence to support claims in relation to forced labour,” he wrote. “Tariffs are not the way – they drive up costs and uncertainty for businesses.”
What we’ve covered
What to know about new proposed tariffs on Canadian goods
Canadian brands are looking at whether they’ll be affected under proposed new tariffs that were announced last week. MR’s Gabriela Barkho reports that the 50% tariffs are scheduled to take effect on Aug. 19, but negotiations in the coming weeks could alter the final rates.
The good news is that, for now, the included product categories appear to be limited enough for many consumer brands to be protected from new tariffs. Energy-related products like oil and natural gas are exempt. Jackson Wood, director of industry strategy for global trade intelligence at Ontario-based Descartes, told Barkho that the types of products being targeted this time around represent just about $20 billion of annual Canadian exports, which totaled $382 billion in 2025.
Still, it remains to be seen whether these tariffs will be legally challenged. They’re issued under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which gives a sitting president the power to impose tariffs of up to 50% on countries that discriminate against U.S.-made goods. But it has never been used by a president to impose tariffs until now.
Kroger’s new CEO, a Walmart veteran, is focused on speed and execution
MR’s Mitchell Parton takes a look at how Greg Foran, Kroger’s new CEO, is faring after a few months on the job.
Foran joined Kroger in February after serving as CEO of Air New Zealand since 2020. Before that, he was president and CEO of Walmart U.S. for about six years. Industry experts predicted he’d focus on ensuring Kroger executes the basics, but he’s also noted that the sector faces challenges like higher gas prices, reduced SNAP benefits and squeezed budgets. Foran said the company needs to improve its store operations and be more consistent in its execution in stores and online.
“We need to move faster, make decisions more quickly, and get more out of the assets and the talent we already have,” Foran said during a June earnings call. “Every time items are out of stock or the checkouts are too slow, that costs Kroger trips.”