ACI’s Sustainability Goals

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American Cleaning Institute 2024 Sustainability Report

ACI’s sustainability strategy unites members to achieve common goals and advance the industry toward a cleaner, safer world.

Working for a more sustainable planet is not easy. But the cleaning products industry is committed to progress, transparency and accountability as a part of its sustainability journey.

Sustainability at ACI

Contribute Positively

49%

of our members have strategies aligned with the SDGs or are reporting their impact on the SDGs.

7

members have Environmental Justice initiatives.

36%

of our members have committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

Increase Transparency

160+

companies are ACI members.

38%

of members disclose their carbon footprint through CDP.

Value Nature

14%

of our members have a goal to reach 0% waste to landfill.

21

of our members have aligned with or achieved the goal of all-circular product packaging.

61%

of our members have committed to using palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Reduce Emissions

57%

of our members have GHG reduction targets.

46%

of our members have committed to increasing their use of renewable energy.

Contribute Positively

ACI’s Goal

Contribute positively to our shared future through supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Mapping ACI’s Goals against the SDGs

The SDGs underpin our Uniting for a Cleaner World framework and therefore our members’ approach to sustainability. The SDGs provide an ideal framework for our diverse members to drive positive impact across their respective value chains through a range of actions. We support members by providing tools and resources that can be leveraged as they work to integrate the SDGs and progress toward a more sustainable business.

SDG Goals Globe

Increase Transparency

Responsible Consumption and Production

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

SDG 12.8 By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature.

Clean water and sanitation

SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation

SDG 6.3 By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.
SDG 6.4 By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity, and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.

Contribute Positively

Partnership for the Goals

SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals

SDG 17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.

Value Nature

Responsible Consumption and Production

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

SDG 12.2 By 2030, achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources.
SDG 12.4 By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, vin accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.

Reduce Emissions

Client Action

SDG 13 Client Action

SDG 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.

Client Action

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

SDG 12.8 By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature.

Member Spotlights

Ecolab Inc. is recognized for its approach to embedding sustainability into its business, demonstrating that companies can deliver on both their financial and environmental goals. Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

There for all of life’s stages

At ACI, we believe in supporting our communities to lead healthier lives. ACI’s series of online toolkits provide information and guidance on how to clean specific spaces, including childcare facilities, schools, and businesses. Through fundraisers and online events, we also raise money to donate to nonprofits supporting access to hygiene through The Wash Foundation and safe water for communities around the world through Dig Deep.

Duck Race

Environmental Justice

ACI is working to educate the industry on environmental justice to support the cleaning products supply chain to be a better neighbor to the communities in which we operate. Our Action Plan for Environmental Justice encourages collective learning and improvement through education, outreach and partnerships, and reporting.

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Increase Transparency
Value Nature
Reduce Emissions

Increase Transparency

ACI’s Goal

Increase transparency to provide people with the information they need to make informed decisions.

Cleaning products are essential to our daily lives. To help consumers make informed decisions, cleaning product companies have the responsibility to communicate both the benefits of cleaning products and potential adverse risks. Transparent disclosure of detailed ingredient information helps to build trust between our member companies and the consumer. At ACI, we are dedicated to supporting our members by providing resources and tools to help them to communicate critical information.

Cleaning Clothes

Safer Choice Safer
Choice

The U.S. EPA’s Safer Choice program helps consumers and purchasers for facilities, such as schools and office buildings, select products with chemicals that are safer for human health and the environment. We have supported the program for more than a decade through ongoing work with the EPA, including advocating for science-based principles for ingredient and product criteria.

Safer Choice

Cleaning Chemistry Catalog (C3)

ACI’s C3 tool illustrates how safety assessment data from publicly available sources can be incorporated into a screening risk assessment for household cleaning product ingredients. The database now provides human and environmental health risk assessments for more than 1,100 ingredients. The information enhances the understanding of regulators, academics, manufacturers and consumers of the role of ingredients in making cleaning products safe, beneficial and effective.

Cleaning Chemistry Catalogue

Member Spotlights

Locus Ingredients leads the way in advancing sustainable cleaning solutions through its innovative sophorolipids biosurfactant technology.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

Member Spotlights

Locus Ingredients leads the way in advancing sustainable cleaning solutions through its innovative sophorolipids biosurfactant technology.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

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Increase Transparency
Value Nature
Reduce Emissions

Value Nature

ACI’s Goal

Increase transparency to provide people with the information they need to make informed decisions.

Our planet and its resources are precious. Having those resources available is critical to maintaining a clean world, while overuse and depletion pose major risks to every one of us.

Man Recycles

Packaging and Waste

As an industry, we are committed to improving packaging design by ensuring it is recyclable or reusable, reducing virgin material use and increasing post-consumer recycled (PCR) or renewably sourced content. Our Circular Packaging Roadmap supports this transition by outlining our ambition and associated goals. Our ambition is for all cleaning product packaging to be circular.

Our ambition is for all cleaning product packaging to be circular.

Circular Packaging Roadmap and Goals

Member Spotlights

GOJO’s approach to thinking holistically about how it delivers sustainable value for people and the planet led to the development of the company’s newest hand sanitizer dispensing system.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

Member Spotlights

IFF applies science and creativity to advance sustainability in the clean products industry and achieve the company’s goal of zero waste to landfill for all its major manufacturing facilities.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

Water Stewardship

Modern innovations have enabled vast improvements in the average daily household water use, largely due to efficiency in appliances. Even with these improvements, it is important to minimize water use. ACI provides water saving tips related to household cleaning on our website to empower individuals to increase their daily water efficiency.

Member Spotlights

Church & Dwight incorporates innovations, such as laundry product concentration and compaction for its Arm & Hammer and XTRA liquid laundry detergent brands, to offer a better experience for consumers that does not compromise on clean.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

Member Spotlights

MonoSol, a Kuraray Company, creates safer, simpler and more sustainable solutions using water-soluble technology—such as water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol films—that customers leverage to deliver concentrated cleaning products.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

Product Compaction and Concentration

As we strive to advance cleaning innovation, product compaction and concentration efforts have gained momentum across the industry. These efforts decrease the amount of water, plastic and weight that need to be shipped, reducing GHG emissions and waste. Concentrates are an opportunity to further integrate ACI’s valuing nature goal into product research and development.

Member Spotlights

The Clorox Company’s compaction of Pine-Sol ® is an example of its commitment to improve products and minimize waste, part of The Company’s overall sustainability strategy that earned it the top ranking on Barron’s Most Sustainable U.S. Companies list.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

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Increase Transparency
Value Nature
Reduce Emissions

Reduce Emissions

ACI’s Goal

Reduce GHG emissions across the cleaning products value chain as part of our industry’s collective efforts to confront climate change.

ACI recognizes that achieving a vibrant and sustainable future means aligning our climate strategy with internationally recognized science-based approaches. As such, reducing GHG emissions in accordance with scientific consensus as determined by the IPCC guides our emissions reduction approach. As part of our commitment, ACI has set a goal to account for and reduce GHG emissions across the cleaning products industry value chain, including consumer use. To support this position, we have challenged all member companies to set carbon reduction strategies in alignment with the 1.5°C trajectory of global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

ACI’s Roadmap to Net Zero and Goals
Forest and Reindeers

Cold Water

Cold water is gentler on fabrics, helping to slow fading in colors, reduce shrinking in fabrics and protect delicates, therefore increasing the longevity of clothes and saving people money. We are supporting our members to spread the message about these benefits. The cleaning products industry, including ACI members, have innovated new detergents that clean just as effectively when used with cold water. ACI members are continually improving detergents, as well as taking steps to support behavior change in consumers to switch to cold.

Cold Water Saves

Member Spotlights

Tide, a Procter & Gamble brand, innovates laundry detergent formulas, includes visual reminders and partners with washing machine manufacturers to prompt consumers to wash in cold while continuing to offer the clean that they expect.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

Sustainable Feedstocks

As the industry continues to review and evolve product ingredients, we expect a shift away from fossil fuel-based to more sustainable feedstocks. Sustainable feedstocks reduce emissions, value nature, have increased transparency and contribute positively to the well-being of the global community. ACI's Sustainable Feedstocks Pledge promotes increased use of more sustainable feedstocks in the cleaning products industry by addressing the sustainability risks of cleaning ingredient raw materials.

Sustainable Feedstock Initiative

Member Spotlights

Eastman collaborates advances sustainability across the cleaning products industry by partnering with raw material providers to produce more sustainable alternatives for surfactants.

Read more in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

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Increase Transparency
Value Nature
Reduce Emissions

Engage with us

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Our ambition is for all cleaning product packaging to be circular.

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Collaborative action is critical to achieving progress toward a more sustainable future.

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