SC Johnson Cuts GHGs 27%, Meets Climate Leaders Goal

Posted

Consumer chemical firm SC Johnson has announced that it has achieved its greenhouse gas reduction goal set through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program.

The company achieved a 27.4 percent absolute reduction, exceeding its goal to reduce total emissions by eight percent from 2005. This is the second time that SC Johnson has surpassed its greenhouse gas reduction goal, the company says.

Climate Leaders was an EPA partnership with industry, started in 2002, and designed to help companies develop comprehensive climate change strategies. Firms committed to aggressive reduction goals and reported their annual progress to the EPA. Last September the EPA announced that the program would phase down its services over 2011.

As a member of the program, SC Johnson pledged to reduce its U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent from 2000 to 2005. By the end of 2005, greenhouse gas emissions had been reduced by 17 percent. The company then set a second goal of eight percent to be achieved by 2010 and again exceeded the goal, this time by 19.4 percentage points.

Since 2000, SC Johnson has reduced greenhouse emissions from its manufacturing factories by 26.2 percent.

The results were driven by the construction of two green energy cogeneration turbines that power the company's largest manufacturing plant in Racine, Wis. Since 2005, the 2.2 million-square-foot facility has been powered by waste methane and natural gas, generating the daily base load of electricity and creating between half and all the steam needed for the plant's operations.

In 2008, SC Johnson agreed to source 46 percent of the electricity for its Bay City, Mich., factory from wind energy. This initiative replaced almost half the factory's annual purchase of coal-fired electricity with wind power, the company says.

"SC Johnson is committed to lightening our impact on the world, and exceeding our greenhouse gas reduction goals demonstrates our progress," said Kelly M. Semrau, senior vice president of global corporate affairs, communication and sustainability. "We're proud of the work we've done, and we'll continue to set goals to reduce our resource use worldwide."

Beth Craig, EPA's acting director of the Office of Atmospheric Programs, welcomed SC Johnson’s achievement.

In May the company, which makes Glade, Windex and Ziploc, announced that by 2015 it would only by buying sustainable palm oil to use in its products.

SC Johnson said it will work with its suppliers as well as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, of which it is a member, to ensure that all the palm oil it uses comes from certified sources.

The company said said that it consumes a relatively small amount of palm oil-based ingredients, used in some of its air fresheners and as stabilizers in some of its home cleaning products. Concerns about deforestation led it to the decision, the company said.

Environment + Energy Leader