Johnson & Johnson Expands Green Product Range

Johnson & Johnson now has 30 products in its Earthwards portfolio of environmentally conscious health care and pharmaceutical products.

The company added 19 products to the range in 2011. It is how halfway towards its goal of having 60 products in the line by 2015.

However, Earthwards is not a certification seal and will never appear as a designation or logo on a product label, Johnson & Johnson says. It is an internal process used by the company’s product teams to innovate better products with smaller environmental footprints, the company says.

Additions made last year to the Earthwards portfolio include Band-Aid adhesive bandages and Neutrogena Naturals skin care products. Band-Aid products now come in smaller cartons and shippers, resulting in less overall packaging material and greater efficiency in freight transport.

Neutrogena Naturals use 86 to 100 percent naturally derived ingredients and the packaging used for these products is made of at least 50 percent post-consumer recycled materials, the company says.

In July last year, Johnson & Johnson announced that it was targeting a 20 percent cut in facility CO2 emissions by 2020 and a 10 percent cut in water use by 2015, both against 2010 baselines.

The targets formed part of a suite of environmental goals including ones relating to facility emissions and use of renewable energy.