The Resource Equation: Can improving one resource create unintended consequences somewhere else?

Water, energy and fossil-based resources each influence the environmental footprint of laundry, but they cannot be considered independently. Improvements in one area often affect another, making it important to evaluate products through a life cycle lens rather than optimizing a single metric. 

Nathan Sell, HPC Sustainability & Certification Leader at IFF, believes the biggest sustainability opportunities come from understanding tradeoffs across the entire product life cycle. “Being able to see the whole picture as you work toward more sustainable formulations is really important to ensure you’re on the right track,” he says.

Water: Beyond Consumption

Water remains central to laundry, but manufacturers are looking beyond consumption alone.

Water quality, local infrastructure and how ingredients perform under different washing conditions all influence cleaning performance. Water also plays an important role in detergent formulations themselves. As the industry shifts toward more concentrated products, manufacturers are reducing the amount of water shipped with every bottle while maintaining cleaning performance. At the same time, washing machines have become significantly more water efficient. According to APPLiA, average water use in European washing machines fell from more than 65 liters per cycle in the late 1990s to 46 liters by ​​​​​​​​2022. As appliances continue using less water, detergent formulations must deliver the same cleaning performance using less water in the wash.

That challenge looks different around the world. Rodrigo Cura, Director of Sales Home & Personal Care LATAM at IFF, notes that the volume of water used in a wash can vary significantly depending on local infrastructure and washing method. Efficient front-loading machines tightly control water levels and detergent concentration, while hand washing and semi-automatic machines often rely on larger, manually controlled volumes and multiple fill-and-rinse steps. The result is a different water-to-fabric ratio, which affects detergent concentration, soil suspension and rinsing performance.

Rather than expecting consumers to change established habits, manufacturers are adapting products to perform under local conditions. “We are not changing consumer behavior. We need to adapt product development to current consumer demands,” Cura says.

Life cycle assessment reinforces that systems perspective. Cleaning performance depends on much more than water volume. Water temperature, product dosage, ingredients and mechanical action all influence both cleaning performance and environmental impact. Optimizing one factor in isolation rarely delivers the best overall result.

*Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Energy: Where Impact Happens

If water dominates the physical resource footprint of laundry, energy dominates its climate footprint. Average washing machine energy use in Europe has nearly halved, falling from more than 1.15 kWh per cycle in the late 1990s to 0.59 kWh by 2022. Yet life cycle assessment shows the greatest environmental impact comes from the use phase, which accounts for 68% of a detergent’s overall carbon footprint.*

That is why cold-water washing has moved back to the center of industry innovation. Lower temperatures shift more of the cleaning burden to detergent chemistry and washing machine performance, a principle long described by ​​Sinner’s Circle. If temperature falls, chemistry, mechanical action or time must do more of the work.

If temperature falls, chemistry, mechanical action or time must do more of the work. Sell sees that balance as central to future innovation. Advances in enzyme technology are helping detergents deliver strong cleaning performance at lower temperatures, enabling consumers to reduce energy use without compromising results. Broader adoption of cold-water washing will also depend on continued collaboration across detergent manufacturers, appliance companies and apparel brands through innovations in formulation, washing technology and garment care guidance.

​​​​​​​Fossil Resources: Managing Volatility

Ingredient choices are under new pressure. Surfactants, the highest-volume ingredients in most detergent formulations, are closely tied to petroleum-based supply chains, making them sensitive to crude oil volatility, energy costs and logistics disruptions. For formulators, that volatility reinforces the need for more flexible ingredient strategies.

Enzymes can help create that flexibility. While surfactants lift soils from fabrics, enzymes help make soils more accessible to surfactants, allowing formulators to partially rebalance formulations when supply, cost or performance requirements change. Rather than solving a single challenge, enzymes help manufacturers maintain cleaning performance while balancing sustainability, formulation resilience and long-term supply security.

Laundry Lens

Optimizing water, energy or ingredients in isolation rarely delivers the best outcome. Every formulation requires balancing water conditions, machine technologies, consumer behaviors and ingredient choices. Understanding how those factors interact helps formulators tailor solutions to local needs without compromising cleaning performance.

Source: IFF, based on A.I.S.E., A compilation of life cycle studies for six household detergent product categories in Europe.