Cleaning Products Industry Impact Report: COVID-19

Around the world, BASF is helping neighboring communities overcome challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. In North America, BASF is supporting local community organizations with donations of disinfectants, personal protective equipment and other needed supplies. While BASF does not regularly produce hand sanitizer at its sites in Washington, New Jersey and Wyandotte, Michigan, a team of BASF scientists and engineers worked on a compressed timeline to develop safe, high-quality hand sanitizer for donation to hospitals and healthcare and government agencies. Additionally, BASF has donated more than $365,000 to Feeding America and will continue matching employee contributions through the company’s matching gifts program.

For Corbion, a leading supplier of lactic acid and its derivatives, protecting health and well-being is part of the core mission. In response to COVID-19, Corbion moved quickly to confirm the efficacy of its antimicrobial agent (an EPA-registered active listed for Emerging Pathogens) against SARS-CoV-2, and supported massive demand growth for antimicrobial and other cleaners amid tight market conditions by increasing production and prioritizing customers’ development work on these essential products. Corbion has also partnered with HI&I customers to fast-track new sanitizers and disinfectants, enabling them to reduce ethanol content to as little as 40% when alcohol is in short supply.

As the global leader in water, food safety and infection prevention solutions and services, during the pandemic Ecolab Inc. has demonstrated its commitment to employees, customers and communities in many ways. An example is the company’s extraordinary effort to meet unprecedented demand for hand sanitizers. In just three weeks, Ecolab developed and implemented a plan to convert plants around the world to significantly increase production of its own formula and to begin manufacturing the World Health Organization’s hand sanitizer formula. Additionally, Ecolab has donated $3.4 million of cleaning and sanitizing products as well as $1.6 million in financial support to help those in need thus far in 2020. Finally, to support its customers’ recovery, the new Ecolab Science Certified program helps businesses demonstrate their commitment to cleanliness through a training and certification process. To learn more, visit https://www.ecolab.com/coronavirus.

At GOJO, nothing is as important as making sure that everyone has access to the highest quality formulations of hand sanitizer. In line with our GOJO Purpose of Saving Lives and Making Life Better, never have we felt more responsibility to deliver on this promise. Whether that is increasing production to historical levels or supporting our team members, GOJO is delivering on new ways to meet the demand for hand hygiene and surface disinfection products every day.
 
To address hand sanitizer shortages, we’re shipping more than a billion uses of hand sanitizer per week in North America alone. Hand hygiene products are going into every market and geography we serve, including healthcare, first responders, schools, restaurants, grocery stores, U.S. military, airports, and more. To learn more, visit https://www.gojo.com/en/About-GOJO/Our-Commitment. 

Henkel’s response aligns with our “We care. We Act.” approach which strives to protect our employees and their jobs, serve our customers, and support our communities with product and financial donations. With health and safety as our top priority, Henkel required employees who can, to work from home, and implemented increased safety protocols to help protect onsite essential workers. Safety enhancements include entrance screenings, restricting travel, social distancing, mandatory face masks, enhanced sanitization, and prohibiting large meetings and visitors. Leadership messaging and a portal site keep employees informed and enhanced digital capabilities support collaboration with employees and customers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Novozymes’ commitment to our employees, our customers, and the communities where we operate is stronger than ever. For employees who need to come on site, we have put practices in place to keep them safe, such as enabling the recommended social distancing, enhanced cleaning and availability of protection gear and sanitizers. Around the world, Novozymes is working with customers to deliver solutions for the production of alcohol for hand sanitizing. In the U.S., Novozymes has donated PPE to local hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as funds to restock local food banks and purchase food for meal deliveries for homebound seniors.

Note: Novozymes is now Novonesis.

Family-owned Pilot Chemical Company is an independent global manufacturer of specialty chemicals, including 35 products approved for use against COVID-19 through the company’s subsidiary, Mason Chemical Company. In addition to making every effort to ensure supply is available to customers during this unprecedented surge in demand, Pilot Chemical has produced and donated more than 1,540 gallons of FDA-compliant hand sanitizer and 2,200 gallons of liquid hand soap, and has donated 2,500 nitrile gloves and nearly $30,000 to aid frontline workers and organizations providing essential services in the fight against COVID-19. To learn more, visit https://pilotchemical.com/news.

In this unprecedented time, P&G is guided by three core principles: protecting P&G people, serving consumers and supporting communities. P&G is constantly evaluating and updating robust measures to help our people stay safe at work and enable others to work from home. We have created campaigns to share important cleaning and hygiene messages, encourage consumers to support public measures like social distancing and masking wearing, and shine a light on the most disproportionately affected populations. In more than 55 countries, P&G is donating tens of millions of dollars in product, in kind services and cash to help those in need. To learn more, visit https://pg.com/covid19.

RB has mobilized £40 million as part of our RB Fight for Access Fund to address our collective fight against the spread of COVID-19. Our immediate focus is to address the stress faced by our consumers and communities where we operate, to break the chain of infection. Some of our actions to date: a $2m donation by Lysol to CDC to support hygiene education in schools, a $25 million investment in a new Global Hygiene Institute to strengthen scientific evidence and achieve behavior change and partnership programs to help reopen industries (i.e., Hilton, Avis, Delta). To learn more, visit https://www.rb.com/about-us/coronavirus-information/.

During COVID-19, our mission has never been clearer. Guided by our values, The Clorox Company has been dedicated to supporting those who need us most. For our front-line teams who continue to work in our facilities to make and ship our products, we’ve adopted additional infection prevention measures along with enhanced pay and benefits to help protect their health, safety and well-being. To help meet unprecedented demand for our disinfecting products, we’ve pulled every lever to maximize supply, including operating our cleaning plants 24/7. To support public health caregivers, we’ve prioritized healthcare facilities – for example, increasing hospital-grade bleach supply by six times – while The Clorox Company Foundation and our brands have made $14 million in donations. To learn more, visit https://www.thecloroxcompany.com/covid-19/.