SC Johnson Continues to Lead for People and the Planet

Through fiscal year 2018/19, we continued to use renewable energy sources at our facilities around the world. During this fiscal year, 34 percent of our energy use came from renewable sources. This includes the use of wind energy at our manufacturing plants in Bay City, Michigan; Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin; Gorzow, Poland; and Mijdrecht, The Netherlands.

In addition, our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were reduced by 62 percent compared to our 2000 baseline. We continue looking at ways to increase our use of renewable electricity, too. In April 2019, we announced plans to use geothermal energy to power our Racine, Wisconsin, headquarters. This will greatly reduce our environmental footprint.

Another way we’re reducing our footprint is limiting the amount of waste our facilities send to landfill. We’re tackling this in many ways globally, including through the responsible use of materials and resources, as well as diverting solid and liquid waste away from landfills. At the close of 2018/19, 100 percent of SC Johnson factories sent zero manufacturing waste to landfill.

Forest protection has been a focus for SC Johnson for generations. Together with Conservation International (CI), we have partnered on environmentally focused projects for nearly 17 years.

Most recently, we teamed up with CI to help protect 10,000 acres of rainforest in the Amazon through an acre-for-acre match campaign. The funds raised are now being used for the world’s largest tropical reforestation project in the Brazilian Amazon.

This year, our Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson has been shining a spotlight on illegal deforestation. SC Johnson is committed to sourcing 100 percent of natural raw materials from sustainably managed forests by 2020.

We also use 100 percent Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-certified sustainable palm oil, palm kernel expeller and palm oil derivatives. By 2025, all of our palm oil-based raw materials will be 100 percent RSPO-certified and sourced from identity preserved, segregated or mass balanced physical supply chains.

We’re working to help the world’s poorest 4 billion people protect themselves from mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue.

As the world’s leading marketer of household pest control products, SC Johnson works to help families protect themselves, and to educate about how to avoid mosquito bites. We focus especially on families who are most at risk — those making less than a few dollars per day and living in areas where diseases like malaria and dengue are endemic.

To date, SC Johnson has reached more than 1.7 million people across seven countries with local programs designed to teach mosquito bite prevention strategies. We have engaged with more than 1,000 individuals as well as more than 150 health ministry officials and NGOs working on disease prevention around the world.

In 2019, we reached a great milestone in one of our efforts, in Sumba, Indonesia. We’ve been working in partnership there with the University of Notre Dame and The Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to investigate the potential impact of spatial repellents in reducing mosquito-borne diseases. 

Researchers tested the efficacy of an innovative spatial repellent developed exclusively by SC Johnson, to reduce the transmission of malaria. Analysis of the data found an approximate 28 percent reduction in first-time infection, while a subset with the highest number of mosquitoes saw an approximate 66 percent reduction in overall malaria infection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published data outcomes from this research in August 2019, in a report showing the effectiveness in fighting malaria. This provides a path forward for spatial repellents in the global fight against mosquito-borne diseases.

We believe people should have access to the information they need to make informed product choices for their families — that’s why our transparency program achieved global reach in 2018/19, encompassing products sold in nearly every country of the world.

Though many countries have inconsistent regulations about ingredient disclosure — or none all — in the absence of industry standards, we’ve focused on doing the right thing by offering unparalleled access to ingredient information for our products sold around the world.

We also went beyond the norm in 2018 when we shared the scientific criteria behind Greenlist™, our peer-reviewed ingredient selection program. Every ingredient we use goes through this rigorous program. At its heart is a four-step evaluation that looks at both hazard and risk using best-in-class data and a commitment to continuous improvement.