In 1975, SC Johnson shocked the chemical industry and set new heights for environmental leadership when we became the first company to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from our aerosol products worldwide.
It was a stunning move, especially since some people felt concerns about CFC gas required more study. One executive argued that SC Johnson should wait for a longer-term study that would settle the science, before acting on “emotion.”
But then-CEO Sam Johnson felt the evidence was clearly mounting that CFCs affected the ozone layer, and he believed action was warranted. As he said at the time, “Our own company scientists confirm that as a scientific hypothesis, [the idea that fluorocarbon propellants in some aerosol containers might be causing ozone depletion] may be possible.”
So Sam took action. “Effective today,” he announced on June 17, 1975, “our company has removed all fluorocarbon propellants from our production lines.”
That was more than a decade before the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the international treaty designed to reduce the production and use of chemicals that contribute to depletion of the ozone layer. It was also three years before the United States banned the use of CFCs.