Water

Between 2007 and 2018, we reduced our water consumption by 36% on an intensity basis (per case of product sold) and 20% on an absolute basis. This represents a reduction of 207 million gallons of water.

In 2019, we reset our water use baseline to calendar year 2018. Our facilities continue to look for opportunities to reduce their water use. Our water withdrawals decreased by 5% between our 2018 baseline and 2021, and our plants were able to drive efficiencies and reduce water withdrawals by 15% per case of product sold between our 2018 baseline year and 2021.

Starting in 2019, we began conducting annual water risk analyses of our operations using Water Resource Institute’s Aqueduct Tool. In 2021 we identified 14 locations in high or extremely high baseline water stress areas. The locations include seven plants, six distribution centers and one office, representing 21% of our global water use.  Of these 14 facilities, four represent 90% of Clorox’s water withdrawals in high to extremely high baseline water stress areas. Two of these four locations — Mexico City, Mexico and Quilicura, Chile — are proceeding with localized water action plans. This includes assessing their plant water use and implementing opportunities to be more efficient. The water use at the two other locations, part of our majority ownership in our joint venture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is being assessed.

Since 2014, we’ve conducted third-party independent assurance of our water use.

Improvements in Infrastructure and Equipment

Our water conservation efforts include a number of water recycling infrastructure and equipment upgrade initiatives as well as changes to some of our water management practices. Most notably, our Kingsford plants in Parsons, West Virginia, and Belle, Missouri, both reduced their water consumption by more than 40% primarily through investments in water recycling infrastructure and replacing water with air compressor systems.

We’ve also made other improvements, such as upgrading our filtration and recovery systems. We performed extensive water process mapping and conservation training at all manufacturing facilities, resulting in better plant-level water practices.

Meanwhile, work on water restoration continues through the expansion and improvement of Clorox’s current wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Water Saved with Clorox Bleach – Concentrated Formula

In 2020, Clorox Bleach began producing a 25% more concentrated formula, saving resources across the product’s lifecycle. Relative to the comparable product previously available on the market, our current bleach is estimated to save 23 million gallons of water annually. In addition to using less water to provide the same dose, this concentrated formula also requires less packaging and weighs less than our previous bleach (on a per-dose basis), reducing its manufacturing and distribution carbon footprint and making the new version a triple win for the environment.