Walgreens Launches Green Products Brand

Walgreens has launched Ology, its own private-label brand featuring a wide range of household and personal care products marketed as environmentally friendly.

The brand features bath and facial tissue, paper towels, copy paper, fluorescent light bulbs, laundry detergent, baby care products, householder cleaners and personal care items, such as adult shampoo and conditioner. All products are value-priced, Walgreens says.

The paper products and light bulbs are 100 percent tree-free and made from readily available renewable sources, the company says.

Some Ology brand products are already available at Walgreens and Duane Reede stores, as well as online. All items in the company’s initial 25-product line, will be rolled out nationwide this month. Walgreens also plans to add a couple dozen items to the Ology product line next spring, reported Crain’s Chicago Business.

The liquid products contain no harmful chemicals, according to the company, in a move prompted by increasing legislative pressure to regulate chemicals in consumer products.

The US Senate previously approved The Safe Chemicals Act, which if passed, would overhaul the federal chemicals law and require ingredients be determined safe for human health before they could be used in everyday consumer products, Walgreens said. The pending legislation has compelled several industry leaders, including Walgreens, to pledge to remove potentially harmful and carcinogenic chemicals over the next several years.

The drugstore chain has made green commitments for its operations and invested in on-site solar generation. Walgreens was among a group of companies and organizations to commit to invest nearly $2 billion of private capital to upgrade energy performance by at least 20 percent by 2020 in 1.6 billion square feet of office, industrial, municipal, hospital, college and school buildings.

Walgreens specifically committed to reducing energy use 20 percent by 2020 across its portfolio of 125 million square feet.