Johnson & Johnson pledge to make healthier products
After committing to remove “chemicals of concern” from its line of baby care products by the end of 2013, Johnson & Johnson, the gigantic (250 operating companies gigantic to be exact) manufacturer of beauty, health care, and personal care products, recently pledged to stop using potentially toxic or cancer-causing ingredients in many of its adult cosmetic and toiletry products. According to EnviroBlog, by 2015 Johnson & Johnson will start phasing out formaldehyde-releasing and animal-derived ingredients (among others), and limiting parabens in adult products to methyl, -ethyl, and propyl-parabens,
Now that Johnson & Johnson has decided to lessen the harm their products have on consumers, BizEnergy thought we’d take a look at what Johnson & Johnson is doing to reduce their carbon footprint on the environment; as it turns out, they’ve been busy.
From safer ingredients to renewable energy
Having appeared yearly (with the exception of 2012) on the list of the EPA’s list of top 50 National partners, Johnson & Johnson has a surprisingly strong record when it comes to investing in renewable energies including Biogas, Biomass, Small-hydro, Solar, and Wind which, as of 2010, accounted for 34% of their total energy use.
According to the Johnson & Johnson website, the company is focused on increasing energy efficiency at their facilities as well as in their transportation fleet, efforts that are largely funded by the company’s Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Reduction Capital Funding Program including a $40 million per year capital fund to support programs that reduce energy use. Some of these funds will undoubtedly be directed towards greener building initiatives since company policy now mandates all construction projects or renovations costing over $5 million be LEED certified. Johnson & Johnson world HQ has already been granted the LEED Gold Certification for Existing Buildings (read more about LEED and BOMA BESt buildings certifications).
In addition to undertaking large scale projects like tripling on-site solar power capacity and raising the percentage of energy coming from renewable sources to over 40%, the company is also looking into creative projects targeting energy efficiency, like this one presented by Ibrahim Khadra, an engineer at the Global Pharmaceutical Supply Group (a Johnson & Johnson family company). Khadra spent three and a half years designing a 2.1 megawatt biomass boiler that uses wood chips from sustainable forests in Ireland, to fuel local operations (see video below):
Read more about Johnson & Johnson’s commitment to safe cosmetics and their policies surrounding energy efficiency. Questions or comments about Johnson & Johnson? Let us know!
image credit: rdowsley
