Fisk Johnson, CEO of SC Johnson: A champion in the crusade against plastic ocean waste

Compelled by what he has seen, Johnson has made it his business, and SC Johnson’s business, to address the proliferation of plastic waste and, ultimately, create a circular economy for plastic.

“Plastic waste is probably the single biggest environmental issue for our company,” says Johnson.

SC Johnson proudly points to its deep-seated and many-faceted commitment to end plastic waste in articles and videos throughout its website. In a 2018 SC Johnson statement, Johnson says: “Together with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and other global organizations, we are making ambitious commitments and taking united action to create a new plastics economy that helps stop plastic from becoming waste.”

In fact, Johnson joined Dame Ellen MacArthur and Erik Solheim, then executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, for the launch of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment at the Our Ocean Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2018. Led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme, the Global Commitment establishes a common vision for companies to help eliminate plastic waste and create a circular economy for the plastics we use. As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation defines it, “a circular economy is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.” The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment now unites more than 400 signatories, including many well-known consumer businesses representing 20 percent of all plastic packaging produced globally.

In 2018, SC Johnson also partnered with Plastic Bank, a social enterprise dedicated to stopping ocean plastic by monetizing waste while simultaneously improving lives. Through this partnership, SC Johnson has opened nine new plastic recycling centers in Indonesia with the goal to stop plastic before it ever gets into the ocean. SC Johnson chose Indonesia for the partnership because it has the world’s highest levels of marine biodiversity, yet also faces high levels of plastic pollution in its oceans.

The system incentivizes waste collectors to gather plastic waste and bring it to a recycling center where they can exchange it for digital tokens to buy goods and services. Payments in digital tokens are tracked using blockchain technology, reducing the risk of loss or theft. After it’s recycled, this post-consumer plastic is trademarked and sold into the market as Social Plastic. SC Johnson is incorporating Social Plastic into bottles of Windex in both the United States and Canada.

“It was only natural for us to get involved with Plastic Bank and their effort to collect ocean-bound plastic,” says Johnson. “I like it because it not only gives us a source of plastic we can recycle back into our products, but it’s got a great environmental benefit and a social benefit as well.”

In October 2019, SC Johnson announced that it had expanded its partnership with Plastic Bank, adding a ground-breaking, three-year deal to create a total of 509 plastic collection points across the globe. These collections centers are projected to collect 30,000 metric tons of plastic waste over three years—the equivalent of stopping approximately 1.5 billion plastic bottles from entering waterways and the ocean.

This laser focus on addressing plastic ocean waste is right in character for SC Johnson, a company that has purposefully built a reputation for its commitment to environmental and social responsibility over several generations. Upon signing the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, the company announced a new set of commitments to reduce its plastic footprint and encourage reuse and recycling of the plastic used in its own products, including:

• Make 100 percent of plastic packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025—up from 90 percent today
• Triple the amount of post-consumer recycled plastic content in packaging by 2025
• Expand the number of concentrated liquid refill options for household cleaning products that come in trigger bottles by 2025
• Champion curbside recycling of plastic film in the United States and promote the reuse of Ziploc brand bags, which are made to be reused many times
• Work with industry and other organizations to support circular plastic economy models and keep plastic out of landfills and the environment.

“We’re uniquely advantaged relative to other companies because we are a private company and a family-led company,” says Johnson. “As a private company, you don’t have to worry about next quarter’s earnings or pressures to maximize shareholder value; we can focus on doing the right thing for the long term.”

Johnson was fascinated by the Business Roundtable’s August 2019 statement on the purpose of a corporation, which moves away from shareholder primacy to include a commitment to all stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, as well as shareholders. Johnson laughed, saying, “You know, I can’t believe it’s taken everybody this long to come to that conclusion.”

But even companies that recognize the importance of all stakeholders are challenged by short-term internal pressures, Johnson says. “I love the fact that Paul Polman, who was the CEO of Unilever, stood out as someone who really tried to do the right thing for the long term. He got rid of quarterly reports and accomplished a lot from an environmental and social standpoint.”

As Johnson sees it, doing the right thing for all stakeholders is key to building their trust—an invaluable and indispensable prize. “Trust is at an all-time low today in many sectors of society, whether it’s business, civil society, or government,” says Johnson. “And trust is a mainstay of being successful long term as a business. People look to see how a company treats people and the planet to determine whether they trust your company or not, and I think companies in today’s world who neglect doing the right thing for both people and planet really do it at their own peril.

“Younger generations today care even more about trust,” Johnson adds. “They care more about a company’s history of social and environmental responsibility, as they make their purchasing decisions.”

Johnson believes consumers, companies, and governments must all work together to effectively tackle the plastic waste problem. And the first step, he says, is to raise awareness: “It’s critical that consumer awareness is more in tune to this issue and that consumers are willing to go through some changes to help create a more circular economy.”

In Johnson’s experience, getting consumers to change their behavior, even in small ways, isn’t easy. For example, SC Johnson has been trying to sell concentrates for its trigger bottles for more than a decade, test marketing in multiple locations using several different tactics, with limited success. “Those trigger bottles can be reused many times,” says Johnson, “and it’s not a big behavior change to buy a small concentrate, pour it in the trigger bottle, and fill it with water. But people have just not been aware enough of the plastic waste problem to go through that slight change of behavior.”

Fortunately, things have changed, Johnson says. “We are at an inflection point in the world where the plastic waste issue is much more top of mind for consumers,” he says. “So as a company, we have the best opportunity now to make a go of concentrates and get people to reuse trigger bottles.”

On another front, SC Johnson is testing a refill station for laundry care products in a store just outside of London and finding that customers are receptive. “That would have never worked five years ago,” says Johnson, “but it’s working today because people are more willing today than ever to remember to bring their old bottle into the store and refill it.”

Johnson sees this as indicative of a new wave going forward. He credits younger generations as even more attuned to environmental issues and consequently more willing to make behavior changes. “It’s something that gives me more optimism than ever that we’ll be able to tackle this problem,” Johnson says.

“There’s nothing—nothing!—that companies respond to better than pull or demand from consumers.”

That comes full circle to why raising awareness is so critical. “One of my missions is to go out there and to keep raising awareness about the plastic waste issue among the public, and you see me doing that through social media,” says Johnson, who actively posts news and information about plastic waste on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. He hopes to see more companies and civil society entities join in raising awareness, as well.

In addition to growing awareness about plastic waste, we need greater government regulation, says Johnson. “I think this is an important element if we’re really going to solve this problem,” he says. “We need regulations that help incentivize the incorporation of recycled materials into products, because the solutions today are not easy.”

As a company, SC Johnson has lobbied for more regulation in a lot of important areas. In 2016, the company championed the passage of critical reforms to the nearly 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act. In 2017, its government relations team worked on California’s Cleaning Product Right to Know Act, legislation aimed at providing consumers with greater ingredient transparency. “We need to do the same thing on plastic waste and other waste-related issues,” says Johnson.

Government regulations play an important role in providing the impetus to drive change. They can also level the playing field.

For example, the World Resource Institute and the UN Environment Programme reported that, as of July 2018, at least 127 countries had adopted some form of legislation to regulate plastic bags, ranging from outright bans to progressive phase-outs. Johnson loves that as an example of regulations that incentivize consumers to change their behavior. “It’s a nice incentive to remember to bring your reusable bag,” he says, “and it’s a great example of the kinds of things that we need to do.”

Regulations that require manufacturers to change their practices are another important piece of the puzzle. “When we put ocean plastic into our Windex bottles, it’s a 30 percent cost premium to do that, and that’s over and above the cost premium we pay to put 100 percent recycled plastic in our Windex bottles to begin with,” explains Johnson. “We’re willing to do that kind of thing. Other companies may not be so willing to do it. If we’re going to really get over the hump, we need greater regulation.”