by Shane Henson — July 20, 2011—SC Johnson, a U.S.-based manufacturer of household cleaning products and products for home storage, air care, and pest control, announced it achieved its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal set through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders program. The company achieved a 27.4% absolute reduction, exceeding its goal to reduce total GHG emissions by 8% from 2005. This marks the second time that SC Johnson, a charter member of the Climate Leaders program, has surpassed its GHG reduction goal.
Since 2000, SC Johnson has reduced its GHG emissions from all of the company’s manufacturing factories by 26.2%. The results were driven by the construction of two green energy cogeneration turbines, which power the company’s largest global 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 generating between half and all the steam needed for the plant’s operations.
Also contributing to the reduction is the company’s commitment to wind power. In 2008, SC Johnson agreed to source 46% of the electricity for its Bay City, Michigan factory from wind energy, replacing almost half the factory’s annual purchase of coal-fired electricity with a clean, renewable source.
Other initiatives include:
- An innovative burner/boiler system that since 2007 has enabled the company’s Medan, Indonesia factory to run on palm shells; the remaining waste of the palm oil industry. Rather than being burned as a waste product, the shells are used as a fuel source, transferring them to the value chain with minimal environmental impact and reducing the company’s diesel fuel usage by 80% in 2008.
- The 2009 construction of an 80-meter-tall wind turbine that helps power SC Johnson’s European manufacturing facility in Mijdrecht, Netherlands, which is expected to produce 6.1 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, eliminating 3,900 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
- The installation of three SWIFT mini-wind turbines at its Racine, Wisconsin corporate headquarters in 2010 as a pilot program, with the goal of reducing GHG emissions while raising awareness that renewable energy can be used in urban settings. In their first year of operation, the mini-turbines have reduced GHGs by 580 pounds.
- The 2009 construction of an 80-meter-tall wind turbine that helps power SC Johnson’s European manufacturing facility in Mijdrecht, Netherlands, which is expected to produce 6.1 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, eliminating 3,900 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
