Company Profile: Clorox Green Works

The “Company Profile” is an Earth911.com series highlighting consumer goods and services making a difference through product stewardship and recycling. Products and services featured do not pay for placement and are not endorsed by Earth911.com.

It’s a distinct era in which we live: even the industry of cleaning is greening.

One example of a company taking sustainability more seriously is Clorox. Not only is the company striving to green up its own operation, but a number of green initiatives have been launched into the market place as well. Clorox’s main investment is the Green Works Natural Cleaners line, which began stocking shelves in January of this year.

We spoke with Jessica Buttimer, Director of Marketing for Green Works Natural Cleaners, to learn more about the Green Works line-up.

Available Products

Green Works currently offers six home cleaning products:

• All-purpose cleaner
• Glass and surface cleaner
• Toilet bowl cleaner
• Dilutable cleaner
• General bathroom cleaner
• Liquid Dish Cleaner

All the cleaners are 99 percent natural. They are made from renewable resources with minimal petro-chemical ingredients. The tiny percentage of non-natural ingredients are preservatives and dyes. Researchers are working to develop natural alternatives, Buttimer said.

Green Works products are non-allergenic, biodegradable and are not tested on animals.

Getting It Just Right

Green works has only been on the market for about seven months, but research has been going on for as many as five years. In the past, many natural cleaners disappointed users. It was very important to Clorox that the new product performed at the same level as a conventional cleaner, Buttimer said.

Helping Consumers Reduce

The number one way Green Works benefits the environment is substituting petro-chemical ingredients with renewable resources, thus helping consumers reduce their impact. All products are made from plant-based ingredients derived from coconuts and lemon oil.

Eco-Evolution

In the past, it was a difficult quest to find affordable, effective natural cleaners. Clorox is the first large company to fill the shelves with such a product line.

You can find Green Works just about anywhere you go. Clorox has “stepped out and taken the lead in the cleaning arena,” Buttimer said. “It is journey that everyone is trying to improve upon.”

Easy To Recycle

She further explained that Green Works tries to go “beyond what consumers are demanding” by using the highest possible post-consumer product packaging. The containers are made of recycled materials, and they are easily recycled again.

“We use the most recyclable ingredients available in the industry,” Buttimer said.

A Rewarding Business

“The most exciting part of my job is talking to consumers about how they feel about us launching Green Works. There are quite a few people who have thanked us for being forward thinking and being the first to really step out and do this. It is an under-served consumer group who have been wanting this,” Buttimer said.

She continued talking about the various natural cleaner barriers of the past. Many people thought they didn’t work, and they were very expensive.

“There were a lot of barriers, but we decided we could do it. We have the scale to make these products affordable and accessible to the public,” she said.

Buttimer has been in the cleaning product industry for many years, but Green Works is the first product line that she has heard a consumer describe as “transparent, optimistic and honest.”

More Products on the Way

The natural liquid dish cleaner is the newest of the line up and just joined its Green Works companions this month. More products are being researched, but Buttimer was unable to describe them in detail.

Favorite of the Three R’s

Buttimer said reduce is the “R” most relevant to her work. The entire Clorox company is working to reduce its own carbon footprint as it helps consumers to reduce theirs, she said.