Johnson & Johnson and its operating companies are using clean energy around the world, reducing harmful carbon dioxide emissions and making environmentally friendlier packaging. “Climate change is already impacting human health,” says Dennis Canavan, Senior Director, Global Energy and Worldwide Environment, Health & Safety. “We need to do this for our children.”
A Greener Box
When Renato Wakimoto reads to his 4-year-old daughter before bed, they like to point to pictures of her favorite birds in the rainforest. “We shouldn’t destroy the forest,” he tells Natalia.
As Johnson & Johnson Group of Consumer Companies packaging director for Latin America, Renato puts his beliefs to work. Starting in 2007, the BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages box is made with materials certified by the international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), assuring that the trees used come from responsibly managed forests.
“Some people think paper products in Brazil come from the Amazon. We are not using old-growth trees,” he says of the box, which began to carry the FSC logo in 2008.
From producing better boxes and bottles to generating solar energy, and using more than 2,000 hybrid vehicles, working in buildings powered with clean energy, Johnson & Johnson companies are taking steps to reduce their environmental impact.
Clean Energy
In 2007, Johnson & Johnson cut the ribbon on its ninth and largest solar facility, in Vacaville, California. More than 5,700 ground-mounted solar panels span six and a half acres. With the sun shining, the solar field provides up to a third of the electrical power needed to run the site, and will reduce CO2 emissions for the manufacturing facility by five percent. In all:
- Our companies achieved a 9 percent absolute reduction in CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2008, meeting the goal of a 7 percent absolute reduction by 2010. In the same period, sales grew 400 percent.
- In 2008, Johnson & Johnson was named the second largest corporate user of on-site solar power in the United States by World Resources Institute.
- Johnson & Johnson was recognized in 2008 by Automotive Fleet magazine as the No. 1 commercial hybrid fleet in the U.S.
Reducing Waste
Johnson & Johnson is also improving its packaging. In 2007, PVC, polyvinyl chloride, was eliminated from most consumer packaging. Also in 2007, the AVEENO® POSITIVELY AGELESS™ and JOHNSON’S® SOOTHING NATURALS™ lines added 30 percent post-consumer recycled material to their high-density polyethylene bottles.
“Sustainability is a process,” says Michael Maggio, Vice President, Johnson & Johnson Group of Consumer Companies, Global Strategic Design Operations. “We start with small steps and then improve as we go.”
These steps circle back to Brazil, where 77 percent of material from the 17-building manufacturing facility in São José dos Campos gets recycled. The recycling center sorts almost 9,000 tons of material a year and sells it to companies that turn unapproved shampoo bottles into toys and diapers into car brakes.
“Every one of these steps contributes to a healthier planet,” Renato says.
To learn more:
Our Healthy Planet 2010 Goals
2008 Sustainability Report
Forest Stewardship Council
EPA Green Power Partners
The Climate Group: Johnson & Johnson case study
To view this video, as well as other videos from Johnson & Johnson, visit the Johnson & Johnson Health Channel on YouTube: JNJHealth