Colgate-Palmolive is one of the largest companies for consumer hygiene products, and they are most famous for their toothpaste and soap products. The European company has now revealed that it has successfully launched a sustainability bond with a huge funding amount.
Colgate plans to issue bonds worth €500 million that will give bondholders a return of 0.3% per year. That is an amazingly low rate to finance sustainability projects to achieve their 2025 goals and a 2030 goal of carbon-neutral energy.
An Environmental Leader report also provided some past success stories that show a promising sign of more improvements.
In November 2019, the company began delivering the first officially recognized recyclable toothpaste tube. In January 2020, it introduced a new line of vegan toothpaste. In November 2020, it committed to sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. And in April of this year, Palmolive unveiled 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles.
The most promising sign of this bond is that there is enough appetite in the investment markets to support great efforts for a relatively small return. Many opponents to such approaches have often indicated that funding these projects isn’t sustainable, but that could be drastically changing.
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