[The Vector] Big and Small, Green Efforts Count: SC Johnson Introduces a Revolutionary Cleaning Concentrate

In a May Vector story, we covered a detailed report from Ogilvy & Mather (Ogilvy Earth) about “mainstreaming green” in the U.S. One of the recommendations of the study was a call to corporations to bring simple greener products to the masses and educate them for mass adoption.  From the top down and bottom up, the U.S. needs to become more aware and more green, says the report.

From the corporate world, SC Johnson is indeed taking a step for mass implementation. On July 1st, 2011, it launched the Windex Mini, a concentrated refill pouch that uses 90% less plastic packaging than the 26 ounce trigger bottle and lowers transport (fuel) costs.

More than 21 million bottles of Windex are sold each year. (The original glass cleaner pump bottle is already produced with 50 % post consumer recycled content, by the way.)  If only 20% of the 21 million anual bottles were refilled with the mini concentrate, it could:

Save 350,000 pounds of plastic (equal to 26 million ballpoint pens)
Avoid transporting 735,000 gallons of water (more than 6 million pounds by weight)
Avoid using 175,000 pouns of virgin plastic (equal to 3 million soda bottles)

This is no small thing!

Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson, said in a press release on July 1st, “Refilling with a concentrate is an example of a very small behavior change that could make a real difference in minimizing waste. But many people don’t want the inconvenience. We want to crack the code and figure out what it would take to make concentrated refills an accepted – even demanded – choice.”  (PR Newswire.)

Johnson spoke at the recent April “Fortune Brainstorm Green conference.”  Fortune Magazine teamed up with its program partners, including The Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund, to gather key players in sustainability from business, government, and NGOs.   At the conference, Johnson spoke about the challenge of getting U.S. consumers to adopt concentrates, and his remarks received an enthusiastic response.

How do the Windex concentrate refills work? Simply cut, pour, add water. Johnson says consumers can refill a clean, single 26 fluid ounce Windex® bottle with cleaner.  To jumpstart the product launch, the Mini is being sold directly by SC Johnson (click the link.)   If you, your friends or businesses use Windex, why don’t you get things rolling by ordering a Mini?  I did.