GOJO Becomes an RSPO Member Company
Sourcing sustainable palm oil is one of the most significant sustainability topics in the world today. If not done sustainably, it drives deforestation, human rights issues, and wildlife displacement. In September of 2016, GOJO was accepted as an official member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This worldwide organization works to ensure that Responsibly Sourced Palm Oil practices are used, reducing the impact from traditional palm oil sourcing.

As a first step, this membership enabled us to purchase RSPO Certified glycerin for GOJO Lippman manufacturing campus in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. By committing to systematically increase the use of RSPO certified materials in our manufacturing, we are able to make progress on our 2020 Sustainable Value Strategies, including Innovate to Create Sustainable Value, Elevate Public Health & Well-Being and Steward a Thriving Environment. Additionally, it demonstrates our enterprise-wide commitment to creating a healthier world.

Dewann Weltmer, Global Sourcing Senior Director, puts the effort into perspective, saying, “This project is critical to GOJO. Not only does it support our 2020 goals, it also meets our stakeholders' expectations. We've positioned ourselves as leaders in sustainability, and this helps us continue to earn our reputation."

A cross-functional team, consisting of members from Quality Assurance, Global Sourcing, Regulatory, Product Development, Manufacturing and Marketing worked together to achieve this goal.

In 2017 and beyond, Weltmer says, “Global Sourcing, along with Product Development and members of the Enterprise Sustainability Governance Team are meeting to determine which ingredients to evaluate next, and develop priorities for next steps."

We are proud of what GOJO has done so far, and we are eager to identify improvements in 2017, as we look to build on the momentum gained from GOJO becoming an RSPO Member Company.

At GOJO, our Purpose-driven commitment to sustainability powers us to innovate our well-being solutions and ways of working. With an understanding of our stakeholders’ requirements and aspirations for more sustainable solutions, we find creative ways to innovate to create Sustainable Value though our work. We deliver market-leading solutions that utilize the best available technologies, while addressing what matters most to our customers. Innovation is at the core of what we do.

As we envision new possibilities, we consistently ask ourselves “How Might We?” We seek to understand the latest science and thinking around sustainable materials, including chemistry and packaging. We continue to work to address our stakeholders’ evolving preferences for sustainable solutions and practices. One way we do this is through sourcing sustainable materials. This aligns with our approach to drive product improvements that deliver social, environmental and economic value, while fulfilling the market desire for effective products that promote human and environmental health.

Our innovative spirit has been at the foundation of our company since the beginning and continues to inspire us. This spirit is exemplified in the expansion of the PURELL® brand into new categories. In 2016, we introduced surface disinfectants and sanitizers, revolutionary solutions with no tradeoffs between safety and efficacy. In early 2017, we launched high-performing HEALTHY SOAP® products that leave hands healthier than regular soaps and are made with renewable ingredients.

We practice our Sustainable Ways of Working (SWOW) principle of Leading and Learning when we innovate, dedicating ourselves to leading our industry in sustainable practices and solutions, while continuously expanding our knowledge and commitment to find better ones.

G4-DMA, Indicator

GOJO is proud to offer the world’s largest portfolio of third-party certified hand hygiene products. In talking with our customers and monitoring our sales, we see increasing interest in adopting third-party certified products to support customer sustainability objectives. Today, there is a growing expectation that our products deliver “human and environmental health benefits” in addition to our long-standing reputation for high performance, explains Nicole Koharik, GOJO Corporate Communications Director.

With third-party certified products, customers don’t need to be experts in green chemistry. They can choose better options for human health and the environment with the knowledge that highly respected, third-party organizations have taken a science-based approach to verify our products’ effectiveness, safety profiles, and sustainability benefits, and have audited our operations to ensure we are producing them in sustainable ways.

Our Regulatory Team collaborates with project teams and product managers to assess our products against third-party standards, and manage the certification process with third-party agencies. Additionally, our Regulatory Team provides valuable guidance to help our GOJO teams design products to meet third-party certification standards. “When we decide to pursue product certifications, we determine which certifications are most valuable, then we develop the product within the requirements and work with the third-party organization to provide the necessary documentation, testing, and feedback required for approval,” says Nicky Mortensen, GOJO Regulatory Affairs Specialist.

How We Measure: Global sales from third-party certified products divided by total sales. Third-party certifications included:

• EcoLogo (North America)
• Ecolabel (Europe)
• USDA BioPreferred (United States)
• Green-Tag Certified (Australia)
• ABNT Colibri Green Seal
• US EPA Safer Choice – DfE (Design for Environment)

Note: Only GOJO sales, Laboratoires Prodene Klint products not included

Percent of GOJO global sales from our third-party certified products

We experienced continued organic growth of our third-party certified hand hygiene portfolio in 2016, across markets. We expect significant progress in 2017 to be driven by new product launches, including the expansion of the PURELL® brand into the surface category, and further innovation.

Expanding the PURELL® Brand Portfolio with DfE Certified Surface Sprays
In 2016, GOJO introduced a revolutionary line of new products from the PURELL Brand, designed to leverage our expertise in germ kill on skin, and apply it to surface disinfection and cleaning. Breaking into a new category brought a steep learning curve, including developing an Enterprise core competency in EPA surface regulations.

Through our development process, we created products that not only rapidly kill germs in as little as 30 seconds, but also achieved the EPAs lowest allowable toxicity rating, meaning they require no precautionary statements, handwashing after use, or signal words like “danger.” “warning,” or “caution.”

The EPA Design for the Environment (DfE) certification recognizes products that meet specific criteria with regards to ingredients, lifecycle analysis, environmental impacts and industry best practices. PURELL Surface Sprays were formulated to meet these requirements, and our commitment to creating a product that is both effective and sustainable allowed us to create an industry-changing product.

The audacious goal of “no trade-offs”—that is, products that are both safe and effective with no compromise—galvanized teams across the enterprise, including Healthy Places, Sales, Regulatory, R&D, Supply Chain, and Market Research.

Innovation on this scale takes a cooperative effort by everyone, and for this project, we implemented several new processes. “We embraced a culture of learning and growth”, said David Miller, Market Development Director, PURELL® Brand. “We not only had to educate our internal GOJO teams on the new products and EPA regulations, but also many of our distributor partners and end users.”

Dewain Garner, Product Development Principal Scientist II, played a role in developing these new formulations, and shed some light on the process, saying, “We chose ingredients for their low impact on the environment during manufacturing, and their low persistence in the environment after use.”

This sharing of knowledge helped us set a strong example for how to create Sustainable Value on a large scale. In doing so, we created revolutionary new products that uphold the safe, effective, and better for you pillars of the PURELL brand, without doing harm to the environment.

PURELL® Brand HEALTHY SOAP® Product is Formulated to Achieve ECOLOGO® & USDA Biobased Certifications
In 2016, GOJO introduced a new line of PURELL® brand HEALTHY SOAP® products, which feature ingredients that help our customers enjoy the benefits of an effective hand soap, along with the added reassurance from a product that was created with the environment in mind.

HEALTHY SOAP® products achieved both USDA Biobased and UL ECOLOGO® certifications. Earning two high-profile certifications for reduced environmental impact and sustainability throughout the lifecycle creates a tremendous amount of Sustainable Value for our customers and other stakeholders, and fits the PURELL brand promise itself.

From the beginning of this project, we sought to use ingredients that not only came from renewable sources, but also left minimal traces in the environment after use. Venkat Padyachi, Product Development Senior Scientist II, helped manage the development of our HEALTHY SOAP® products, and added, “As we developed these products, we applied our sustainable chemistry practices every step of the way. The result is a portfolio of high-performance products, made with even safer, more sustainable raw materials that minimize our environmental footprint.”

HEALTHY SOAP® products are the next chapter in our sustainable chemistry work, and have been a great proving ground to realize that using renewable, environmentally responsible ingredients can lead to breakthroughs in the way we create our products.

G4-DMA, G4-PR1

Well-formulated products combined with effective hand hygiene helps decrease the spread of germs that can cause illness and infection. We formulate our products to help reduce the spread of germs, maintain and improve skin condition, be aesthetically pleasing, and meet our high standards for safety and sustainability.

GOJO is the first company to publicly commit to reducing our chemical footprint by 50 percent by 2020. No other company in the world has made such a strong declaration to advance sustainable chemistry. Our commitment to protecting human health drives our thoughtful formulations. Our intention is to continuously elevate the safety profile of our portfolio, while leading by example and encouraging others to reduce their chemical footprint.

How We Measure: Percent reduction of the GOJO Chemical Footprint (CFP), measured as the total mass of chemicals of high concern (CoHCs) in products sold by GOJO

Notes:

• GOJO adopted the definition of Chemicals of High Concern (CoHC) as defined by Clean Production Action in their Chemical Footprint Project Survey 2016 Guidance Document. To calculate the GOJO Chemical Footprint, GOJO will use the CPA reference list and include additional chemicals that GOJO considers as having other hazard traits but might not be included in the CPA list.
• Only chemicals used in products manufactured at Lippman Campus in 2015 were included for this first scan.
• Laboratoires Prodene Klint and Contractors are not included.
• Cleaning/Maintenance supplies are not included.

Percent reduction in total mass of chemicals of high concern (CoHCs)

Our 2016 progress reflects reductions of Triclosan and parabens in existing products. We began phasing out Triclosan as part of the implementation of our sustainable chemistry policy in 2013. In our involvement with the Chemical Footprint Project, we implemented additional projects to dramatically reduce parabens and titanium dioxide; we also avoid using these ingredients in new products.

To guide our product development efforts, we adhere to The GOJO Sustainable Chemistry Policy, which outlines the guiding principles and fundamental approaches that inform our decisions and actions for implementing sustainable chemistry throughout our product portfolio.

GOJO Team Members Become Authorized GreenScreen® Practitioners
A core part of our business – and our sustainability priorities – is ensuring that all GOJO products are safe for human health and the environment. Understanding the intrinsic hazards of ingredients helps us identify and find safer alternatives. By monitoring these ingredients of concern, we can phase them out of our formulations.

GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals is a broadly recognized method for chemical hazard assessment developed by Clean Production Action, the NGO that founded the Chemical Footprint Project. It is utilized by manufacturers, governments, and NGOs to find the safest alternatives to chemicals of concern in order to reduce their chemical footprints. An authorized GreenScreen practitioner goes through an extensive six-month training program to perform high-quality hazard assessments using GreenScreen.

In 2016, GOJO Sustainability Analyst, Roberto Bellino, along with GOJO Product Safety and Sustainability Manager, Antonio Quiñones-Rivera, completed the GreenScreen Hazard Assessment course, and are now authorized GreenScreen practitioners. This makes Quiñones-Rivera and Bellino two of only 31 authorized assessors in the United States.

“Sustainable Chemistry is a strong driver of the GOJO 2020 Sustainable Value Strategies and Goals. The use of GreenScreen Assessments will allow us to deepen our knowledge regarding new chemicals and will help us continue to develop even safer products,” said Antonio.

The ever-changing landscape of material assessment, combined with our focus on creating even safer, more effective products led us to complete the GreenScreen training. Bellino was impressed with how much support the initiative received. “This project made me realize that at GOJO we are not afraid of learning new methodologies and tools to advance our knowledge in formulating products that are safer for humans and the environment.”

Obtaining this authorization expanded our in-house assessment capabilities. Beginning in 2017, we expect to implement the GreenScreen evaluation into several GOJO processes, in our ongoing effort to achieve our 2020 Sustainability Goal to reduce our chemical footprint by 50 percent.

Paraben-Free Wipes
Parabens were identified as chemicals of concern by leading third-party experts, and as a company that is on the forefront of sustainable chemistry, GOJO is taking initiative to eliminate such ingredients from our products.

GOJO sought a solution that would allow us to eliminate parabens from our PURELL® Wipes; a core product in the PURELL brand portfolio. By creating a cross-functional team, consisting of stakeholders on the Product Management, Global Sourcing, Product Development, Packaging and Market Insight and Development teams, we found and implemented an approach that met the needs of our customers and our business.

Working closely with Research and Development, the team evaluated the impact and benefits of reformulating our wipes. Now, we are able to make more compelling claims about our wipes, seek new opportunities to address specific regulatory or customer challenges, and continue to develop even safer, more effective products.

Vanessa Riedlinger, Senior Engineer II-Wipes, a member of the team emphasizes the importance of this kind of project at GOJO. “Sustainability is a process, and every improvement counts. It’s part of the ‘How Might We?’ culture at GOJO, where we push the envelope and apply our learnings to future projects.”

We are continuing to find new ways to increase the Sustainable Value of our high-capacity wipes refills, and develop more sustainable wipes products. “The smallest steps can lead to great accomplishments that get us closer to achieving our 2020 goals,” added Riedlinger.

This drive for continuous improvement has allowed us to evolve and innovate, to develop products that go beyond killing germs and to deliver increased Sustainable Value.

G4-DMA, G4-EN28

To create solutions that bring well-being to people and the planet, we are adopting more sustainable materials for formulations and packaging; this includes avoiding materials known to be harmful to humans and the environment and maximizing the use of better alternatives. Beyond the materials we select, we evaluate where they are coming from and the impact from sourcing the materials. We also apply life cycle thinking and life cycle analysis, or LCA, metrics to guide decisions and continuously improve our product designs.

Our 2020 Sustainable Value Strategies inspire us to reimagine some of our most fundamental policies and processes to identify improvement opportunities. In September of 2016, GOJO was accepted as an official member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. This worldwide organization works to ensure that Responsibly Sourced Palm Oil (RSPO) practices are used, reducing the impact from traditional palm oil sourcing.

Going into 2017, we developed a Packaging Sustainability Champion role that will focus communication and activities on department projects to reuse or reduce packaging materials used in the distribution process. A different GOJO team member will take on this role each year, in order to engage and educate all packaging engineers in sustainability initiatives.

Here are some additional examples of our progress:

• Materials:
• Increasing the use of naturally derived ingredients in our products
• Completely eliminating the use of expanded polystyrene
• Supporting the goals of Responsibly-Sourced Palm Oil (RSPO) as a member
• Packaging:
• Conducting a baseline evaluation of GOJO packaging materials and identified opportunities to reduce packaging waste. We are embracing circular economy principles to inform our thinking
• Transporting PURELL® Advanced Hand Sanitizer 2oz. bottles between our manufacturing facilities, we switched from corrugated cardboard boxes to reusable totes
• Paper:
• Creating new partnerships with printers who value sustainability
• Using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper ensures forests are managed carefully for generations to come. All of our paper is now FSC-certified or post-consumer recycled paper

How We Measure: Amount of total packing in pounds per 1,000 uses

Note: Products produced at Lippman Campus, wipes products and incoming component packaging are included. Laboratoires Prodene Klint is not included.

Lbs. of packaging per 1000 uses

In 2016, we established the process for measuring this goal and calculated the baseline. Additionally, we reorganized the packaging workgroup to establish a resource structure in support of this goal, including the appointment of a sustainable packaging champion. We expect future progress to be driven by increases in the efficiency and recycled content of our secondary packaging.