Established in 2019, the Earth Hero Award is PSC’s Nobel Prize: it is our opportunity to recognize an outstanding sustainability leader who is doing remarkable work in the pet industry. We have many opportunities throughout the year to spotlight our — particularly through the PSC Accreditation Program — but the Earth Hero Award is unique in that it focuses on transformational work within the industry. It is designed to recognize members who not only live the high standards PSC encourages and measures, but also influences others in positive ways.
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Petco has been a sustainability champion for PSC since their founding partnership in 2008. Always active, their work continued to ramp up as their sustainability leader, Francesca Mahoney, was promoted to a newly established leadership role as Head of Sustainability in 2020. Mahoney built on impressive 2020 achievements (including the elimination of 3.6 million pounds of cardboard waste and 30,000 pounds of plastic waste, upcycling of 1.5 million plastic bottles into pet accessories and the elimination of 3.2 million pieces of packaging waste) to drive toward even more ambitious goals for 2021.
In April 2021 Petco made the news again by setting a public goal to increase its assortment of sustainable products to 50% by the end of 2025. They established five key pillars to assessing these targets, including
- Responsible manufacturing
- Sustainably sourced materials
- Sustainably sourced ingredient
- Responsible packaging
- Animal welfare
From this public announcement Petco has launched a tsunami of sustainability work in our industry and PSC has been there on every step of the journey, both as an expert voice and with functional and educational support to Petco, their vendors, associates and broader community. Petco has inspired the entire industry, not only by setting ambitious goals, but also by backing them up with the resources, support and leadership to make the goals attainable. Together, Petco and PSC are driving positive impact within the pet industry by educating, engaging, and collaborating with pet suppliers to incorporate sustainability practices across the industry.
Congratulations to our 2021 Earth Hero, Petco!
