Clorox Green Works(TM) Responds to OrganicMania…

January 24th, 2008

Monday’s post about Clorox’s new green cleaning line posed a question about the lack of large refill containers for Green Works products. Refill containers are important because they minimize the use of smaller, nozzled plastic containers, reduce waste, and simply because they’re something green consumers expect from a green product line. They’re a key component of source reduction, which decreases the amount of materials used during the manufacturing and distribution of products.

Since I didn’t see refill containers in the store, nor on the Green Works website, nor mentioned in their press release, nor for that matter mentioned anywhere in the blogosphere, OrganicMania contacted both Clorox and their PR firm to find out about their plans for refill containers.

A representative from Ketchum, Green Works PR firm, left a voicemail for OrganicMania saying that GreenWorks is “exploring this option” and noted that “that’s all the information that’s available right now.”

Hmm…I scratched my head. How can you launch a green product line and not include refills? It seems so basic. Especially when a quick trip to my local grocery store proved that other Clorox products, such as their clean-up cleaner with bleach, come in 64 ounce refill containers.

Before posting this update, I decided to do one more comprehensive web search to see if anyone else was addressing the refill issue. You’ll never guess what I found….on restockit.com, an ad for a 64 ounce refill container of Green Works glass window cleaner.


2 Responses to “Clorox Green Works(TM) Responds to OrganicMania…”

  1. MamaBird on February 4, 2008 7:28 am

    You might be interested in these musings abt Clorox’s new line: http://tinychoices.com/2008/02/04/clorox-green-works/

    Hi MamaBird, thanks so much for passing this along! You really get around the blogosphere! — Lynn

  2. The Not Quite Crunchy Parent on February 6, 2008 5:04 am

    Not an atypical response – the PR agency is often the last to know what’s going on – that’s no fault of either the PR agency or the Clorox team…it’s just a new product launch is so frenetic (I’ve been there)that some of the details have to wait :-)

    MC, you’re right, and I totally understand how this can happen, having worked on oodles of launches myself. I really hesitated before posting this out of sympathy for the busy PR woman. First, of all, I was thrilled that she even returned my call, especially given the blogging you did about the way other companies like Target have been treating bloggers.

    However, at the end of the day, what green consumers really want to know is whether or not Clorox is sincere about this new green marketing campaign or whether it is greenwashing.

    As a green consumer and green mommy blogger, one of my first reactions when I saw the Clorox GreenWorks display was to wonder about refill containers. Over at tinychoices, comments were made about the lack of refill containers in concentrated form. This is a big issue for green consumers. Companies like Clorox need to be aware that if they’re going to get into the green market, they really need to consider all the angles – not just ingredients, but sustainable packaging too. I felt like I needed to post my experience without too much comment because I really was concerned and I did want to know what their stand was…and I was surprised it was so hard to find this out.

    But at the end of the day, guess what? It appears Clorox GreenWorks is doing the right thing with refill containers already available for at least some products – although I haven’t seen the Clorox GreenWorks concentrated refill bottles yet. — Lynn

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