How Kenvue Worked With Costco to Develop ‘Smarter, Responsible Product Design’
In 2024, Costco focused on directly enlisting suppliers to help it meet its sustainability goals. Among the partners was Kenvue’s Zyrtec, which transitioned from blister packs to fully recyclable paper-based packaging across all of its products.
Kenvue global head of packaging Sushil Iyer told CGT the effort required many months of collaboration across the company’s entire supply chain, but it allowed the brand to eliminate an estimated 150,000 pounds of annual plastic waste.
“Supplier-led product innovations are one of the critical pathways for retailers to achieve their own sustainability goals, with most today having well-defined goals on reducing plastic and waste from their assortments,” he said. “That’s where suppliers can collaborate with retailers by driving the product innovation needed to meet their goals.”
The new packaging is currently rolling out to all retailers and online, supporting Kenvue’s own Healthy Lives Mission goal of reducing virgin plastic in packaging by 25% of its 2020 baseline. The company has already achieved a 21.4% reduction across its portfolio with the help of its proprietary Sustainable Innovation Profiler tool.
“The Profiler enables our R&D teams across brands to more thoroughly embed sustainable product development in their processes and look at every step of the product development process,” Iyer said. “This, in turn, allows us to offer products with improved environmental footprints, helping retailers reduce plastic from their aisles/marketplace as well as the end consumer.”
The tool was also used to redesign bottles of OGX’s Argan Oil shampoo and conditioner, which are now made from post-consumer recycled high-density polyethylene, meaning everything but the cap is recyclable. It also helped revamp the packaging for Nicorette icy mint lozenges to cut plastic waste by 85%.
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A global rollout of the OGX packaging is underway and should be complete by 2026. Kenvue doesn’t sell Nicorette in the U.S., but its new packaging for the brand is already on shelves in Europe and the Middle East and will arrive in Canada this year.
“These updates reflect how Kenvue is embedding smarter, more responsible product design across our innovation,” Iyer said.
Collaboration Drives Industry-Wide Transformation
Kenvue is also helping other major retailers with their sustainability goals. It is one of 5,900 suppliers signed onto Walmart’s Project Gigaton, named for the amount of greenhouse gases the retailer hopes to eliminate from the supply chain by 2030.
Last year, it received the group’s highest recognition for its decarbonization and plastic reduction work. About 72% of Kenvue’s electricity use comes from renewable sources, and the company wants to take that number to 100% by 2030.
The company is also a member of the WWF Climate Business Network, which works with businesses to help meet global climate goals by implementing sustainable practices and reducing emissions, and is part of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
“We recognize the critical role of collaboration in driving progress toward circularity and addressing the risks of a changing climate,” Iyer said.
