Hand watering small plant to signify sustainability

GOJO, the inventor of Purell hand sanitizer, has published its seventh annual report on sustainability. “Changing How The World Stays Well” highlights the company’s progress throughout 2017 and 2018 against its 2020 sustainable value strategies and goals, which focus on creating social, environmental and economic value for its stakeholders.

The plan for 2020 also aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The report follows the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Standards.

“I am proud to share, through this report, how our team has driven sustainability into the ways we work every day in pursuit of our GOJO purpose, saving lives and making life better through well-being solutions,” says Marcella Kanfer Rolnick, GOJO executive chair.

Highlights from the report include achieving the company’s goal to power GOJO U.S. distribution operations by renewable energy two years ahead of schedule. In 2018, GOJO completed the installation of a 755-megawatt-hour solar array at its 1.3-million-square-foot distribution center in Wooster, Ohio. The solar array is providing energy without producing harmful air and water emissions or consuming non-renewable natural resources.

As part of the company’s efforts to improve energy efficiency, GOJO is recovering waste heat from air compressors, better insulating their facilities, and, in 2017, replaced nearly 20,000 fluorescent lamps with LED bulbs, saving 1.8 million kilowatt-hours per year. 

The report also covers the sustainable innovation in product development, including the launch of the Purell brand Health Soap with Clean Release, reformulation of the GOJO Multi Green into the GOJO Multi Green Eco, and invention of the touch-free Purell ES8 dispensing systems.