Rose Squared Helps Courtney Valmore Turn the Tide on Sustainability at P&G
Monday, October 20, 2025
Because of her experiences at Rose-Hulman, including Rose Squared, Procter & Gamble trusted Courtney Valmore to singlehandedly reduce plastic packaging in Tide and Gain detergent bottles.
The distinctive orange of Tide detergent bottles will soon be much greener thanks to 2024 Rose-Hulman graduate Courtney Valmore. A fabric care packaging engineer at Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Valmore earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering with a minor in economics while simultaneously pursuing a master's degree in engineering management as part of the Rose Squared program.
Valmore is working to reduce the amount of plastic packaging used by P&G's fabric care line, notably Tide and Gain bottles, and credits Rose Squared with helping her quickly earn her company's trust to take on massive projects.
“My work directly contributes to P&G’s goals,” she said. “Our company hopes to design 100% of our consumer packaging to be recyclable or reusable and to reduce our use of virgin petroleum resin by 50% per unit of production compared to a 2017 baseline.”
Valmore is one of very few people responsible for this initiative globally.
"I keep joking that I'm going to present to the CEO within the next year," she laughed. She is quickly climbing towards that goal and, less than a year and a half after graduation, has already presented to senior vice presidents at the company.
The plastic packaging reduction project was offered to her as an opportunity especially for her just a few short months into starting full-time with P&G.
“I like to believe it wasn’t just luck because I know how to lead engineers in a way that is different from leading a group of marketing people or a group of finance people,” Valmore said. “I think the ‘people side’ of the engineering management degree is what taught me to do that.”
Valmore actively seeks leadership and management opportunities at P&G. She applied some of the skills she learned in the Rose Squared program as an intern peer mentor this summer and as a technical coach for a student completing a co-op this fall.
Valmore enjoyed that the Rose Squared program provided a blend of classes focused both on managing facilities and quality and managing people.
"The facilities classes have always stuck with me because I feel like I see them most in my day-to-day, and then I feel like the leadership classes were the ones where I learned the most in the moment," she said. "I felt like it gave me a lot of good value for my education."
Valmore started taking graduate-level coursework during her first year at Rose-Hulman, allowing her to immerse herself in both curricula and understand not only how they applied to each other, but to her myriad of student leadership roles as well.
While she was a student, the impact of Valmore's leadership was felt in nearly all aspects of campus. Serving two terms as Student Government Association president, Valmore advocated for raising campus minimum wage, initiated the hugely popular "First Friday" monthly coffee event, and advanced campus sustainability initiatives. She also founded the Active Minds club, was a member of several professional societies, and led Rose-Hulman's first student social media team.
In every role, Valmore reflected on her leadership through the engineering management lens.
"That was honestly my favorite part and probably the most direct application. I was able to use examples from being student body president and organizing events in the papers I was writing," she said. "The quality assurance and logistical side also taught me how I could be better organized in the way I was leading other people."
Between SGA Senate meetings, walks with her dog at Hulman Farm, and creating content for social media, Valmore also completed four internships before she graduated college, with each one helping her realize more of what she desired in her career.
At her first internship with Praxair Surface Technologies, Valmore realized a passion for research and development before exploring a different avenue as a marketing engineering intern with Endress+Hauser.
"That's where I learned I needed some touchpoint of creativity and marketing in the job that I did," she said.
She learned at Eli Lilly and Company that, while she still enjoyed research and development, she did not want to work in manufacturing. It was her final internship at Procter & Gamble, though, that left the greatest impression.
"At the end of the day, sustainability was my focus, and my P&G internship was where I felt like I saw the most tangible impact in sustainability, and where I felt like what I would be doing was going to have the biggest impact," Valmore said.
As she started her career, with two degrees in hand, Valmore never had to choose between any of those priorities.
"It truly does take all of the things that I appreciated from each of my other internships and combines it into one thing," Valmore said.
"One of the main reasons I chose P&G in the first place is that one small change has a really big ripple effect. I know that would not have been the case if not for every single thing I did at Rose because it made me the employee that I am today and shapes who I want to be in the future."
Valmore is working to reduce the amount of plastic packaging used by P&G's fabric care line, notably Tide and Gain bottles, and credits Rose Squared with helping her quickly earn her company's trust to take on massive projects.
“My work directly contributes to P&G’s goals,” she said. “Our company hopes to design 100% of our consumer packaging to be recyclable or reusable and to reduce our use of virgin petroleum resin by 50% per unit of production compared to a 2017 baseline.”
Valmore is one of very few people responsible for this initiative globally.
"I keep joking that I'm going to present to the CEO within the next year," she laughed. She is quickly climbing towards that goal and, less than a year and a half after graduation, has already presented to senior vice presidents at the company.
The plastic packaging reduction project was offered to her as an opportunity especially for her just a few short months into starting full-time with P&G.
“I like to believe it wasn’t just luck because I know how to lead engineers in a way that is different from leading a group of marketing people or a group of finance people,” Valmore said. “I think the ‘people side’ of the engineering management degree is what taught me to do that.”
Valmore actively seeks leadership and management opportunities at P&G. She applied some of the skills she learned in the Rose Squared program as an intern peer mentor this summer and as a technical coach for a student completing a co-op this fall.
Valmore enjoyed that the Rose Squared program provided a blend of classes focused both on managing facilities and quality and managing people.
"The facilities classes have always stuck with me because I feel like I see them most in my day-to-day, and then I feel like the leadership classes were the ones where I learned the most in the moment," she said. "I felt like it gave me a lot of good value for my education."
Valmore started taking graduate-level coursework during her first year at Rose-Hulman, allowing her to immerse herself in both curricula and understand not only how they applied to each other, but to her myriad of student leadership roles as well.
While she was a student, the impact of Valmore's leadership was felt in nearly all aspects of campus. Serving two terms as Student Government Association president, Valmore advocated for raising campus minimum wage, initiated the hugely popular "First Friday" monthly coffee event, and advanced campus sustainability initiatives. She also founded the Active Minds club, was a member of several professional societies, and led Rose-Hulman's first student social media team.
In every role, Valmore reflected on her leadership through the engineering management lens.
"That was honestly my favorite part and probably the most direct application. I was able to use examples from being student body president and organizing events in the papers I was writing," she said. "The quality assurance and logistical side also taught me how I could be better organized in the way I was leading other people."
Between SGA Senate meetings, walks with her dog at Hulman Farm, and creating content for social media, Valmore also completed four internships before she graduated college, with each one helping her realize more of what she desired in her career.
At her first internship with Praxair Surface Technologies, Valmore realized a passion for research and development before exploring a different avenue as a marketing engineering intern with Endress+Hauser.
"That's where I learned I needed some touchpoint of creativity and marketing in the job that I did," she said.
She learned at Eli Lilly and Company that, while she still enjoyed research and development, she did not want to work in manufacturing. It was her final internship at Procter & Gamble, though, that left the greatest impression.
"At the end of the day, sustainability was my focus, and my P&G internship was where I felt like I saw the most tangible impact in sustainability, and where I felt like what I would be doing was going to have the biggest impact," Valmore said.
As she started her career, with two degrees in hand, Valmore never had to choose between any of those priorities.
"It truly does take all of the things that I appreciated from each of my other internships and combines it into one thing," Valmore said.
"One of the main reasons I chose P&G in the first place is that one small change has a really big ripple effect. I know that would not have been the case if not for every single thing I did at Rose because it made me the employee that I am today and shapes who I want to be in the future."