EARTHWARDS: Moving toward a Healthy Future – Continuous Greener Improvement on Our Products
May 20, 2011 8:00 AM ET
From Ann Lee-Jeffs, Manager, Worldwide Environmental Health & Safety Research & Development, Johnson & Johnson
As a product steward at Johnson & Johnson, I’m constantly thinking about the environmental impact of products whether I’m shopping at the mall or picking up groceries at the supermarket. It’s more than just my job – it’s become a part of my life.
At Johnson & Johnson, we recognize the importance of caring for the environment as do our consumers. Given this, in 2009, Johnson & Johnson introduced EARTHWARDS™, a process that helps the product teams at our operating companies assess the environmental and social impacts across a product’s full life cycle and the work to reduce those impacts. The process also celebrates greener product successes, and enables brand teams to evaluate potential environmental claims with a clear set of information.
To be considered for EARTHWARDS™ designation, a product must achieve a greater than 10 percent improvement in at least three of the seven areas below:
-
Materials used
-
Packaging reduction
-
Energy reduction
-
Waste reduction
-
Water reduction
-
Positive social impact or benefit
-
Product innovation
