Headquartered in the US, the privately held corporation has operations in Brazil, the UK, France, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. So, its sustainability initiatives will likely have a wide reach.
Reasonable aims
Tuesday at the 10th Annual BizNGO-Chemical Footprint Project Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, GOJO presented a five year plan to improve the company's sustainability.
Marcella Kanfer Rolnick, vice chair of the company spelled out the three distinct aspects of the plan, saying, “The GOJO Purpose, Saving Lives and Making Life Better Through Well-Being Solutions, continues to inspire our deep commitment to creating Sustainable Value – that is, social, environmental and economic value – for GOJO and our customers and people who use our products, our suppliers, our team members, our collaboration partners and our community.”
Identifiable targets
GOJO hopes to meet the expectations of multiple parties with its new plan: "As we have worked to rise up to the challenge of this imperative, we have learned that what is needed and expected by our customers and other stakeholders are new sources of Sustainable Value for today and tomorrow,” says Kanfer Rolnick in the company’s media release about the 2020 goals.
The company’s stated 2020 Sustainable Value Strategies and Goals are:
- Innovate to Create Sustainable Value
- Elevate Public Health and Well-Being
- Steward a Thriving Environment
- Foster a Culture of Sustainable Value
These will lead to a reduction of the company’s chemical footprint, further work towards industry-wide hygiene, sourcing and reusing materials with environmental impact in mind, and promoting sustainable ways of working.
As Mark Rossi of Clean Production Action, notes in the GOJO media release, "Chemical footprinting provides a clear pathway for measuring progress to inherently safer chemicals."
"Now we have GOJO demonstrating authentic leadership by stepping up and being the first company to publicly state a goal of reducing its chemical footprint. We look forward to working with other companies in measuring their progress to sustainable and healthy chemicals," he says.
Honorable mention
GOJO headquarters are in Akron, Ohio, where a local group recently recognized individual company employees for their work in sustainability. At the Summit of Sustainability, the non-profit group Keep Akron Beautiful honored Nicole Koharik, global sustainability marketing director, and Tom Marting, facilities and resource management director, as Sustainable Changemakers.
A Sustainable Changemaker is “a person who is a driving force for leading an organization to make sustainable changes that are of value to not only the organization, but to the community as well,” explains the GOJO media release about the Summit of Sustainability.
Koharik's oversees GOJO’s corporate sustainability strategy, policies, goals and stakeholder engagement. Upon being recognized, she remarked, "we see sustainability as a journey requiring leadership, innovation and continuous improvement, and this award is a reflection of the progress we have made….Sustainability is everyone's responsibility at GOJO, and I am happy to be a part of leading the charge."
Marting's contribution centers on a packaging solution for hand sanitizing wipes and includes lifecycle-analysis programs at GOJO.