Mindful
of his company’s long history of sensitivity to the environmental or health
effects of the chemicals in its products, the author decided to risk losing
sales by reformulating Saran Wrap. SC Johnson had acquired it from Dow in 1998,
and the product’s superior microwavability and impenetrable barrier to odor
made it the market leader for decades. Polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) was
responsible for both those unique differentiators. When the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, environmental groups, and consumers began to express concern
over the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the difference between PVC and PVDC
got lost in the discussion. Nevertheless, the company was concerned as well,
because it used PVCs in some of its external packaging. It launched a process
called Greenlist to help it reevaluate their inclusion. Since then Greenlist
has been rigorously updated to sort ingredients according to category and rank
them for impact on human and environmental health. The company has removed
potentially hazardous products many times—and taken whatever hit accompanied
each instance. It could have simply eliminated PVCs from the product packaging
and left Saran Wrap as it was. Instead it pledged to stop selling wraps that
contained chlorine of any kind, including PVDCs, by 2004. A dedicated research,
development, and engineering team was assigned to try to re-create Saran Wrap
without PVDCs within a year. But preserving its unique characteristics proved
impossible, and this once iconic product became an also-ran. [ABSTRACT FROM
AUTHOR]