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Johnson & Johnson - Index

Johnson & Johnson - report - Index

product is meeting existing regulations. To manage these
risks, we have an emerging issues team that monitors the
external environment to identify potential issues and we
factor that knowledge into our new product research and
business planning. We want to proactively identify these
issues and our customer’s perspectives so we can attune our
activities to the strictest requirements, be they legal strictures
or societal pressures.
Robust product stewardship moves us to make changes
before legislation might force us to do so. Right now, our
formulators have an electronic design system that helps
them see the estimated cost of goods as they are mixing
and matching different ingredients. A future expansion of
this tool will allow us to better analyze and minimize
environmental impacts early in the development process.
This would enable us to weigh environmental impacts
alongside cost and performance, and make better choices.
PROFILES IN COMMITMENT
Q:
Packaging Director Renato Wakimoto
stands in the Brazil eucalyptus farm
that provides pulp for our BAND-AID®
Brand boxes. The Forest Stewardship
Council has certified the forest as being
responsibly managed.
Q:
What are some of your current
challenges?
KONINGS: Well, I mentioned the concerns
about the use of laboratory animals.
It is aimed at the use of animals during
the testing of cosmetic products. The
European Union has a very stringent law
that will become effective in 2009 that
bans any ingredient that touches an
animal for use in cosmetic products.
Ahead of this law, many countries and
store chains are already electing to comply
with it and rejecting products they
regard as inappropriate or environmentally
irresponsible. We have been moving
out of animal testing and investing in
alternatives, but this is not yet obvious
because many countries continue to
require animal testing for safety purposes.
Another recent example concerns
parabens. While perfectly legal as a preservative,
NGOs have expressed concerns
about their use. We are reformulating
our baby products into paraben-free
formulations even though the science is
equivocal. This is an example of societal
pressure demanding change ahead of,
or even instead of, the regulatory framework.
Both impact the choices we make.
Do you expect your product stewardship
program to return value to the business?
KONINGS: Yes, it will. There is substantial business opportunity
in product stewardship. By rethinking our products, our relationships
with the supply chain, and the ultimate customer,
we create new opportunities to increase our own productivity,
reduce costs, increase employee safety, innovate, and give
customers more value. An example of this would be the standardization
on a smaller number of raw materials. Not only
does it enable us, stewardship-wise, to better control material
quality (for example, trace impurities), but it also allows us to
buy larger volumes of fewer materials, thereby reducing cost.
Similarly, if we can build our line of skin care products as
variations around the same core formula, that will keep the
overall carbon footprint down because that formula can be
made more efficiently in larger batches. At the same time,
though, this is a more cost-effective way to manufacture. �
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