SC Johnson Settles Lawsuits on Greenlist Logo Use

The suits were brought in federal court by Wayne Koh in California and by Mr. Howard Petlack in Wisconsin. SC Johnson’s use of the Greenlist logo was intended to signify that the Windex products had achieved the highest internal ratings according to the company’s patented Greenlist process. However, the plaintiffs claimed it was not clear Greenlist was an internally developed process rather than that of a third party and that the logo implied the products included environmentally friendly ingredients.

“We decided to settle for two reasons. First, while we believed we had a strong legal case, in retrospect we could have been more transparent about what the logo signified,” said SC Johnson chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson. “Second, and very importantly, Greenlist is such a fundamentally sound and excellent process we use to green our products, that we didn’t want consumers to be confused about it due to a logo on one product.”

SC Johnson continues to believe that the Greenlist label met all applicable standards and regulations, and the company’s intention was in no way to mislead consumers.

Additionally, while the company disagreed with the plaintiffs’ claim about the impression created by the logo, the Windex products did in fact meet the company’s highest internal standards and the product ingredients are not harmful to the environment, SCJ said in a statement released Friday.

“While companies always try to ensure labels are clear and understandable, different interpretations can arise,” noted Kelly M. Semrau, SVP – Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability at SC Johnson. “We want to simply learn from the experience and move on.”

SC Johnson said it proudly continues to use the Greenlist process in product development as the company works to use more ingredients it has rated “better” and “best.”

Since the process was created in 2001, SC Johnson has used it to make numerous advances including reformulating to cut nearly 48 million pounds of VOCs from SC Johnson products in the last five years alone.