Clorox’s Global Stewardship Director Talks Ingredient Management and Transparency - Seite 2

Clorox also helped develop an industrywide labeling tool, SmartLabel, which gives consumers a way to easily access detailed information for a wide range of U.S. retail products in a single place, using a consistent digital format. In partnership with the American Cleaning Institute trade association, we recently became the first company to add user-friendly definitions to SmartLabel so consumers can better understand the function of each ingredient in our cleaning products.

All of Clorox's cleaning and disinfecting products sold in the U.S. are currently searchable in SmartLabel, and one of our goals is to expand our scope for providing consumer-meaningful information through this tool. Other companies are expected to follow, which is a great example of how work in this space will not only benefit Clorox but the entire industry.

How does Clorox engage with external stakeholders, such as NGOs or consumer advocacy groups, to proactively advance this work?

The perspective and insight we receive from our external stakeholders is critically important to how we approach our product stewardship goals. Whether it's the consumers who use our products every day, the NGOs that advocate for increased chemical safety, or investors that rate our company on ESG progress, we want our efforts to resonate with all our stakeholders. Importantly, our product stewardship goals also depend on collaboration with external groups to achieve and verify them, which helps build trust with our consumers.

For instance, in 2021 we began participating in the Chemical Footprint Project to help measure and disclose data related to the chemistries used in our U.S. professional and retail cleaning products. A product's chemical footprint is a relatively new concept that is akin to how a carbon footprint measures carbon emissions and is intended to benchmark progress toward the use of less hazardous materials. We're working to improve our footprint's survey score for our domestic cleaning portfolio 50% by 2030 with an interim target of 35% by 2025.

Another goal focuses on the development and sales of products with targeted certifications and product transparency affiliations, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's BioPreferred programs. In order to earn these certifications identifying products that are safer for human health and the environment, they must go through a rigorous third-party review process to ensure they offer ingredient alternatives without compromising quality or efficacy. I'm proud to say that Clorox has been named an EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year six times.