SC Johnson

SC Johnson is a family-owned, multinational company producing household and cleaning products, based in Wisconsin, USA. It has been in business since 1886, and some of its better-known brands include Glade, Vanish, Ziploc, Saran Wrap, Mr Muscle, and Raid.

With annual sales worth around $4 billion, the company has operations in more than 60 countries worldwide and employs nearly 10,000 people.

Corporate responsibility is a long-standing tradition in the company. In 1990, this led to the establishment of a centralized environment and safety policy, focusing on the development of cleaner and safer products and process technologies. Specific eco-efficiency goals included phasing out several harmful chemicals used in its products, minimizing waste and pollution at the manufacturing stage, cutting down on packaging materials, making efficient use of road transport, and recycling as many materials as possible in its factories.

Johnson has laid down environment, safety, and health standards for its manufacturing plants, many of which it says go beyond what is required by law. The company's suppliers, too, are vetted using a 'global business scorecard', which measures continuous improvement in safety, health, and environmental performance.

The company uses a computer-based package called STEP (Success Through Environmental Progress) to assess the environmental impact of its products. STEP checks a product's environmental performance against ten key indicators. It was developed in collaboration with an NGO called the Alliance for Environmental Innovation, and enables environmental assessments to be carried out early on in the lifetime of a new product.

The company claims that since 1992, its eco-efficiency strategy has eliminated some 200,000 tons of waste from its products and processes around the world, saving US$125m in costs.

Examples of eco-efficiency achievements reported by the company include:

• A redesign of the packaging used for Glade carpet and room air freshener reduced material consumption by around 200 tons annually, and saved the company US$1m;
• In the period 1990 to 1998, SC Johnson managed to reduce the amount of virgin packaging material it used worldwide by 24%;
• At the same time, its consumption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) declined by 21%;
• The company's African subsidiary, Johnson Wax Nigeria, won an industry award in 2000 in recognition of its use of butane instead of chlorofluorocarbons, as well as a can recycling project and a waste water treatment plant.

In its Australian operation, SC Johnson reported the following improvements in the five years to 1999:

In 1998, the company decided to shift the focus of its sustainability policy away from eco-efficiency towards what it calls 'eco-effectiveness', in a move described as 'a philosophical change more than anything'. In practice, the new approach was intended to foster a more active approach to sustainable business practice - for example by giving the company more freedom in its choice of materials used for products and packaging.

The company sums up its current stance on sustainability as 'Creating shareholder and societal value while decreasing our footprint along the value chain'.

Interestingly, SC Johnson makes few 'green' claims in its marketing and advertising materials, and relies instead on the reputation of its individual brands in their particular markets. Dr Stephen Potter of the Open University Centre for Technology Strategy in the UK comments: 'Many cleaning product companies attempt to market their products using a 'green' image; Johnson feels that to do likewise would weaken their existing, very strong, branding.'