US cleaning giant joins WWF Climate Savers

American firm JohnsonDiversey, one of the world’s largest providers of commercial cleaning products and services, has joined the WWF Climate Savers programme.

The announcement was made by WWF-US, who said that JohnsonDiversey had pledged to significantly reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions from their operations. The company announced it will invest US$19 million over the next five years to achieve these commitments.

WWF-US President and CEO Carter Roberts said the actions being taken by JohnsonDiversey to address climate change will set a new standard for the cleaning industry and serve as a model for other companies seeking to transform the way they do business to help preserve the environment.

“Changes in corporate business practices are essential if we are to see real progress in tackling climate change, one of the most critical issues facing the world today,” Roberts said.

“By joining Climate Savers, JohnsonDiversey is demonstrating that the world’s leading companies will find even greater success competing in the global marketplace when they operate in an environmentally responsible way.

“We hope and expect the rest of their industry will take notice and follow the powerful example being set by JohnsonDiversey to reduce emissions and help preserve the health of our planet.”

By 2013, JohnsonDiversey officials pledged to reduce emissions from their operations by 8 per cent below 2003 levels, an 89,000-ton reduction in emissions.

JohnsonDiversey chairman S. Curtis Johnson said: “This commitment is one of our core values. Our objectives have always extended beyond financial growth to include promoting the health and well being of our planet and the people who share it.”

JohnsonDiversey is the first company from the cleaning industry to join WWF’s Climate Savers, which was founded in 1999 and now comprises 17 major international companies. By 2010 they will collectively cut carbon emissions by over 14 million tons annually – the equivalent of taking more than three million cars off the road every year.

The WWF Climate Savers programme has existing agreements with Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Nike, Polaroid, Hewlett Packard, The Collins Companies, Spitsbergen Travel, Xanterra Parks and Resorts, Sagawa, Sony, Nokia, Tetra Pak, Lafarge, Catalyst, Novo Nordisk, and Nokia Siemens Networks.