January 14th, 2008 · No Comments

By Harriet Blake

Serious investments in green endeavors were all the rage in 2007 as investors and big corporations poured billions of dollars into environmentally focused companies. It seems certain that many of these transactions will result in greener products and services, and also that doing the right thing for the environment increasingly makes good business sense.

Perhaps the most unlikely business pairing came with the recent purchase of Burt’s Bees by the Clorox Company for almost $1 billion. Clorox is a nearly century-old company known primarily as the maker of its namesake bleach. In addition, Clorox makes Brita water filters, STP auto-care products, Scoop Away cat litter, Hidden Valley dressing and K.C. Masterpiece barbeque sauce, Kingsford charcoal and Glad bags.

Burt’s Bees is a 23-year-old company founded expressly to make earth-friendly personal care products. Its mission: “We make people’s lives better every day – naturally.” The company began in Maine, where Roxanne Quimby and Burt Shavitz started selling candles made from the beeswax that was a by-product of Shavitz’ honey business. Burt’s Bees, with annual sales of $164 million, uses natural ingredients such as beeswax, botanical and essential oils, herbs, flowers and minerals. Its concern for all things natural extends to its recycled packaging.

Now based in North Carolina, Burt’s Bees sets company-wide initiatives to help reduce the impact that the company has on the environment. And it currently is working with Habitat for Humanity to build the first earth-friendly affordable housing in North Carolina.

Clorox, looking for its own spot on the environmental bandwagon, has started a new line of green cleaning products. Corporate social responsibility also is now part of the company’s official website, which includes sustainability facts on all its products and notes that the company also recently completed an inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions at manufacturing plants and offices in North America.

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