SC Johnson Rolls Out Windex Mini

With the launch, SC Jonson says it is looking to gain a better understanding on how to motivate consumers and retailers to move to a greener choice.

According to the company, while concentrates use less packaging, decrease shipping impacts and reduce waste that ends up in landfills, sales data shows U.S. consumers prefer not to refill their household cleaning bottles. This means stores won’t stock concentrates and companies hesitate to create them, the company wrote in a press release issued today.

According to Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of SC Johnson, “Refilling with a concentrate is an example of a very small behavior change that could make a real difference in minimizing waste. But many people don’t want the inconvenience. We want to crack the code and figure out what it would take to make concentrated refills an accepted – even demanded – choice.”

According to SCJ, the company moved quick to get Windex Mini concentrated refill pouch on store shelves. The July 1 launch comes after Johnson’s speech at the 2011 Fortune Brainstorm Green conference in Aprili at which he spoke about the challenge of getting U.S. consumers to adopt concentrates, and his remarks received an enthusiastic response. The firm reportedly embarked on a plan to get Windex Mini concentrated refill pouches into the hands of U.S. consumers in less than 15 weeks.

“The environment isn’t top of mind in most consumer purchases right now, but it needs to be if we’re going to address some of the challenges that future generations could face,” Johnson said. “What we try to do at SC Johnson is get product choices out there that work well and also have a better environmental profile than the ones that came before them.”

With the concentrated refill pouch, consumers cut, pour, add water – consumers can refill a clean, single 26 fluid oz. Windex bottle with cleaner. The product is also being sold directly by SC Johnson at www.scjgreenerchoices.com in three-packs of “snip ‘n’ pour” pouches.

According to SCJ, 21 million bottles of Windex Original glass cleaner are bought each year. If just 20% of those were refilled, each year it could save 350,000 pounds of plastic and avoid using 175,000 pounds of virgin plastic and transporting 735,000 gallons of water, according to the company.

In addition, the cleaning products company has announced a new carbon calculator that it is launching in partnership with Conservation International (CI). Designed by CI, the tool offers a detailed analysis of a family’s carbon impact based on home energy use, vehicles, diet and more. It also offers suggestions on how to lower impact and a chance to offset it.