SC Johnson markets its green efforts

I'm sitting here watching the Olympics when I notice a commercial by SC Johnson (you know, Windex, Scrubbing Bubbles, Pledge, Ziploc, Glade...). The ad highlighted SC Johnson's commitment to environmental sustainability - they're now powering their manufacturing plant with methane gas. Interesting!

I found it curious that this chemical company would highlight its sustainability practices, so I went online to take a look at their marketing efforts. I'm keenly aware of greenwashing, a practice of misrepresenting a firm's environmental efforts. On the other end of the spectrum, many companies are missing an opportunity to communicate their efforts to the market by not highlighting their practices. I was curious as to what SC Johnson was up to.

What I found was an open and fairly straight forward declaration of their efforts. And not just recently, but documenting throughout the history of the company. They apparently developed a rating system for its raw materials and chemicals so they could benchmark their products and set goals to reduce the toxicity. I did notice that they have a majority of chemicals in the 'acceptable' category, but they are clearly making steps to improve.

Just for fun, I thought I'd highlight some reasons why I think they are taking some great steps to market their efforts. Someone at SC Johnson seems to understand the principles of 'green marketing'...

1. Sustainability makes it to the first page of their website, and is prominently displayed
2. A dedicated section provides lots of details on the company's efforts (you can read as much or little as you want)
3. SC Johnson has developed its own benchmark for rating its chemicals, and set tangible goals for improvement in the next three years.
4. The company openly releases its own scores, acknowledging more work is necessary, and being truthful about where they stand
5. FAQs and 'myth-buster' pages to answer common questions and address misinformation
6. Their Corporate Social Responsibility commitment encompasses community involvement, education, and conservation
7. Good use of website to detail efforts - in fact, the 'Products' tab is fourth out of six. They made a decision to focus the website on their efforts rather than the products.
   

I can't speak to the consistency of their message, or how well they are using their channels to communicate their values, but I was pleased with the website messages. Apparently their advertising worked b/c I went to their website to learn more -

I can't give them a 10 because, quite frankly, many of their products only rank as 'acceptable'. Second, they aren't using an industry-wide rating system, making it impossible to compare their products to the competitors'. But I prefer to avoid judgment, rather focus on the steps they are taking to improve (keep your eye on the ball, kid!).

In the interest of fairness, their main competitors are Clorox, Proctor & Gamble, and Unilever. (Oddly, the P&G and Unilever websites look eerily similar) Unilever has an incredible website detailing their commitment and encourages people to 'start small' - a great message for those interested in sustainability and don't know where to start.