Racine, WI
www.scjohnson.com
Sales: $10.3 billion

Sales: $10.3 billion, but that total includes food storage products.

Key Personnel: H. Fisk Johnson, chairman and chief executive officer; Mark H. Eckhardt, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Salman Amin, chief operating officer; Kelly M. Semrau, chief sustainability officer; Steven P. Stanbrook, chief operating officer of international markets.

Major Products: Household cleaners, disinfectants and insecticides. Brands include AllOut, Autan, Baygon, Off! and Raid insecticides; Drano drain cleaner; Duck, Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner; Caldrea, Mr. Muscle and Mrs. Meyers household cleaners; Glade air freshener; Grand Prize, Kiwi and Pledge waxes and polishes; Shout laundry stain remover; Windex glass cleaner, Ecover and Method home cleaning products; Deb cleaning products for the I&I sector.

New Products: Glade—Elegant Blossom and Oud, Scented Gels, Auto Plug-Ins for Auto; Deb—reformulated hand soaps; Method—cleaning wipes in lime + sea salt, pink grapefruit and lavender; and hand wash in sea breeze and fresh pineapple. Acquisition—Sun Bum.

Comments: Sources estimate SC Johnson’s sales rose 3% last year, but company executives insist their success isn’t all based on profit. CEOs around the world are waking up to the fact that their companies can do better when it comes to caring for the planet. SC Johnson has been doing better for years; it was one of the first companies to create an ingredient transparency program, champion renewable energy platforms and aggressively seek out ways to reduce its plastic packaging footprint. For example, since March, the Windex Vinegar trigger bottle has been made from 100% ocean plastic. Last fall, a worldwide coalition of leading businesses (SCJ was one) and governments came together to tackle the growing global crisis of plastic pollution with the signing of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment at the 2018 Our Ocean Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

“We measure our success not by the financial report of the next quarter, but by what we can do to make the world better for this generation and the next,” said Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. “We are making ambitious commitments and taking united action to create a new plastics economy that helps stop plastic from becoming waste.”
The commitment includes:

• Taking action to eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging by 2025.
• Taking action to move from single-use toward reuse models where relevant by 2025.
•  Making 100% of plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
• Significantly increasing recycled content in plastic packaging by 2025.

SC Johnson is also committed to reducing its own plastic footprint, and encouraging reuse and recycling of plastic products via measures such as:

• Making 100% of SC Johnson plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Currently, 90% of SC Johnson’s plastic packaging is designed to be recyclable, reusable or compostable.
• Tripling the amount of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic content in SC Johnson packaging by 2025 from 10 million kilograms to more than 30 million. As part of this, SC Johnson will increase the percentage of PCR plastic that it uses in its North American and European bottles from 20% today to 40% by 2025.
• Expanding the number of concentrated refill options for SC Johnson products by 2025. Since 2011, SC Johnson has been making concentrated liquid refills for its Home Cleaning trigger bottle products in the US. Each trigger bottle is designed to deliver 10,000 sprays so it can be refilled and reused an average of 13 times, every time avoiding a single-use alternative. The company will continue to expand its variety of concentrated refill options, enabling consumers to reuse packaging and reduce waste.
• Continuing to remove excess plastics wherever possible. SC Johnson has been relentlessly focused on designing unnecessary packaging out of its products. From 2011 to 2017, the company has removed 9.5 million kilograms of materials from its packaging.
• Championing curbside recycling of plastic film. SC Johnson will continue its effort to make curbside recycling of flexible plastic film such as Ziploc brand bags a reality in the US. SC Johnson is also promoting reuse of Ziploc brand bags, which are made to be reused many times.

In the area of ingredient transparency, earlier this year SC Johnson expanded its program to Latin America.

Just last month, SC Johnson accquired Sun Bum sun care and personal care products. A purchase price was not disclosed.