By Dylan Beach, Sustainability Senior Manager, GOJO Industries
This year's Earth Day theme is "Invest in Our Planet." This theme is "focused on engaging governments, institutions, businesses, and the more than 1 billion citizens who participate annually in Earth Day to do their part – everyone accounted for, everyone accountable," according to the global organizers. This blog post will explore a brief history of how we arrived at this moment of a warming planet, how GOJO as an organization focuses on sustainability, and actions you can take on a personal level to do your part and invest in our planet.
How we got here
Our climate has been relatively stable for about 10,000 years. Our entire society today is based on that climate stability. It allowed our ancestors to transition from scavenging hunter-gatherers to more sedentary farmers and for all species to evolve and adapt to slowly changing temperatures and precipitation patterns. This all centers around the concentration of gas molecules that have a "greenhouse effect" – such as carbon dioxide (CO2 ). (Read the definitions section at the end for more on the sustainability terminology used throughout this blog.)
For almost 10,000 years, the concentration of CO2 emissions in our atmosphere was at 275 parts per million (ppm). Around 1850, with the start of the Industrial Revolution, the ppm of CO2 began to rise. Today it is around 420 ppm. This is a dramatic, hockey stick-like growth curve unlike anything in measurable history.
Because of this, we've seen a lot of extreme weather over the past few years. At the time of writing this blog, California, while in the middle of an extreme drought, has experienced a series of torrential rains causing massive flooding. We've seen recent wildfires, blizzards, and record hurricanes. This is a glimpse at a future without addressing our changing climate and is why climate change is a grave threat to societies worldwide and global public health.
Sustainability at GOJO
GOJO has a whole-systems approach to social, environmental, and economic sustainability, including third-party product certifications like Cradle to Cradle and a vertically integrated supply chain. While sustainability has been part of GOJO culture since our founding in 1946, before it was called sustainability, we officially launched our sustainability journey in 2006 with the first-to-market green hand cleaner and launched our first publicly stated sustainability goals in 2010. Since then, we have reached many significant sustainability milestones, including:
- Reduced our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions intensity (kg CO2 equivalent / 1000 product uses) by 46% between 2010 and 2015 from a 2010 baseline.
- Adjusted our ingredients and formula mixing process to work at lower temperatures, reducing natural gas consumption.
- Adopted a new industrial cleaning and sanitation process, which uses electrolyzed water to clean at room temperature, reducing natural gas consumption.
- Replaced tens of thousands of traditional fluorescent lightbulbs and fixtures with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs and fixtures at our manufacturing facilities, saving nearly 200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy annually.
- In 2018, we installed a 633-kilowatt solar panel array comprised of 1,836 individual photovoltaic panels to help power our 1.3 million-square-foot Wooster facility operations.
- Reached 72% of global sales from third-party certified products in 2021, including 90% of PURELL hand sanitizer sales achieving Cradle to Cradle Certified® Gold.
Commitment to Climate Resilience and Responsibility
When we developed our new Sustainable Value strategy, we knew we had to have a major focus on climate change. It is consistent with our Values and our Purpose of Saving Lives and Making Life Better through Well-Being Solutions.
One of the four pillars in our new strategy is Climate Resilience & Responsibility. To do its part, GOJO has committed to setting short-term and long-term carbon reduction targets in alignment with the Science Based Targets Initiative's (SBTi) Net-Zero Standard. This best-practice commitment will guide the efforts of the Enterprise to decarbonize across its entire value chain and to deliver lower carbon solutions to customers.
The SBTi standard is significant because it is based on what the world's leading scientific body for climate research, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says is needed to keep the world below 2°C (35.6°F) and preferably below 1.5°C (34.7°F), above preindustrial temperature levels, which is projected to avoid the worst effects of climate change. (We are currently at 1.1°C (34°F) of average warming, according to NASA.)
Measuring Scope 3 emissions
It is one thing to make commitments, and it is another thing altogether to make progress. To make progress, you need measurement. This year, in 2023, we are measuring our Scope 3 emissions for the first time. (For definitions of the different scopes of greenhouse gas accounting, see the list at the bottom.) Think of Scope 1 and 2 emissions as those that occur from activities within your operations – Scope 1 being direct emissions from fuel use in things like boilers and Scope 2 being from electricity use. Scope 3 emissions are all the rest, upstream and downstream from your direct operations.
We've measured our Scope 1 and 2 emissions for over a decade. Measuring our Scope 3 this year will give us a baseline against which we can measure and report our reduction progress. Carbon accounting is complicated when considering the scope of a company's entire value chain. Our measurement approach will enable us to identify the best opportunities for reduction across our value chain and make data-driven decisions. That is when the real fun begins.
Do your part.
Climate change is an enormous, daunting, existential, and sometimes overwhelming issue. However, each of us, on an individual level, can do our part to help our planet. Here are some suggested starting points:
We only have one Earth – we all need to work with it.
Definitions:
Greenhouse Effect: A natural process that occurs when gases in the Earth's atmosphere trap the sun's heat. It makes the Earth warmer, historically a comfortable 58°F (14°C). Scientists have shown that humans have impacted this natural process by burning fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, trapping more and more heat and making our oceans (which absorb carbon) more acidic and warmer.
GHG/Greenhouse Gas: Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere – the primary being carbon dioxide (CO2).
Carbon Dioxide: A colorless and odorless heat-trapping gas present in the atmosphere that is formed during respiration (breathing) and from burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions: The production and discharge of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.
Sustainability (EPA definition): "Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations."
Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions: Direct GHG emissions occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the company, for example, emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, furnaces, vehicles, etc.
Scope 2: Indirect GHG emissions: Scope 2 accounts for GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company. Purchased electricity is defined as electricity that is purchased or otherwise brought into the organizational boundary of the company. Scope 2 emissions physically occur at the facility where electricity is generated.
Scope 3: Other indirect GHG emissions: Scope 3 emissions represent all other indirect emissions. Scope 3 emissions are a consequence of the activities of the company but occur from sources not owned or controlled by the company. Some examples of scope 3 activities are extraction and production of purchased materials; transportation of purchased fuels; and use of sold products and services.
GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard: This standard provides requirements and guidance for companies and other organizations preparing a corporate-level GHG emissions inventory. It covers the accounting and reporting of seven greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PCFs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
Scope 1, 2, and 3 definitions are from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.