private household-products manufacturer
SC Johnson
Industry Manufacturing
A private family-controlled household-products company selling cleaning, air-care, storage, pest-control, and household brands such as Windex, Pledge, Glade, OFF!, Raid, Ziploc, and Method. SC Johnson scores somewhat better than public peers for ingredient transparency and family control, but insecticides, fragrances, plastic storage, and household chemicals keep it far from good.
Why this matters: SC Johnson is a major household-chemical and pest-control competitor, and its stronger ingredient transparency makes it a useful calibration case.
Letter grade D Extractive Medium confidence (AI) Rubric gcd-rubric-v1
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.
SC Johnson receives the Private Government badge because it combines large-scale private rule-setting over customers, workers, users, members, or counterparties with OpenLobby-documented lobbying of about $2.5M on public policy issues.
Evidence: [11]
Request verification to have the evidence record checked against primary materials and organization-supplied documents. Verification does not buy a higher score; scores change only when review finds factual errors, omissions, or miscalibration.
Evaluation Overview
D - Extractive
The score turns mainly on Ownership, with the largest penalty coming from Policy Capture.
Strengths
- Ownership3/10
- Market Conduct3/5
- Product Integrity3/5
Penalties
- Policy Capture-7
- Toxic Products-3
- Animal Testing-3
- Ecological Harm-2
Evidence state
- ConfidenceMedium confidence (AI)
- ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
- Linked claims11
- Direct axis claims9
- Coverage9/15
Scoring Axes
| Axis | Score | Why this score |
|---|---|---|
Ownership
?
Control rights: shareholder-dominated at 0, worker cooperative control
at 10.
|
3 / 10 |
SC Johnson is privately family-controlled rather than public-shareholder-controlled, which slightly reduces market-exit pressure but still gives consumers and workers no democratic control. Linked evidence
|
Governance
?
Binding decision authority: centralized control at 0, democratic
stakeholder control at 10.
|
2 / 10 |
SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. Linked evidence
|
Extraction
?
Surplus allocation, wage share, CEO pay ratio, margins, and structured
extraction judgment.
|
2 / 10 |
SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. Linked evidence
|
Labor Sovereignty
?
Worker power: coercive conditions at 0, co-determination or ownership at
7. Employee dissatisfaction matters only when source-backed evidence
shows concrete limits on worker agency, such as coercive scheduling,
retaliation, wage theft, harassment, unsafe conditions, suppression of
worker voice, or extreme turnover.
|
1 / 7 |
SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. Linked evidence
|
Solidarity with the
Unemployed
?
Treatment of exits and nonworkers, including severance, redeployment,
and non-competes.
|
1 / 7 |
SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. Linked evidence
|
Loss-Bearing Fidelity
?
Willingness to absorb costs to preserve values, workers, users, and
public obligations.
|
2 / 7 |
SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. Linked evidence
|
Market Conduct
?
Pricing fairness, switching costs, lock-in, and rent extraction.
|
3 / 5 |
The company holds strong household brands, but its private family structure and transparency posture make it somewhat less extractive than the largest public CPG giants. Linked evidence
|
Product Integrity
?
Preservation of quality rather than degradation for monetization.
|
3 / 5 |
SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. Linked evidence
|
Scale Integrity
?
Whether growth improves or degrades fairness and accountability.
|
2 / 5 |
SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. Linked evidence
|
Penalties
| Penalty | Applied | Why this penalty |
|---|---|---|
Ecological Harm
?
Footprint, trajectory, irreversibility, culpability, and scale,
including whether ecological harm is central to the model and continued
after credible notice. Range: -30 to 0.
|
-2 |
Air care, pest control, plastic bags, cleaning products, fragrances, and chemical manufacturing create ongoing environmental burden. Linked evidence
|
Policy Capture
?
Private-interest attempts to bend law, regulation, subsidies, taxes,
enforcement, trade, labor, safety, competition, environmental,
healthcare, housing, surveillance, civil-liberties, or consumer policy
against workers, customers, citizens, affected communities, or
ecological life. Public-interest advocacy is not penalized merely
because it is lobbying. Range: -15 to 0.
|
-7 |
OpenLobby records S.C. Linked evidence
|
Toxic Products
?
Current sale of products whose ordinary use, exposure, ingredients,
residues, packaging, or formulation creates toxic, addictive, or
consumer-safety risk. Food products receive at least light scrutiny for
artificial colors, artificial flavors, petro-derived additives,
pesticide residues, contaminants, endocrine-disrupting packaging, and
ultra-processed formulation. Ordinary adult nightlife or alcohol service
is not penalized by itself without evidence of predatory marketing,
youth targeting, addiction-extractive design, or unusual product-safety
misconduct. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-3 |
Insecticides, repellents, fragrances, disinfectants, and cleaners create direct exposure risks even when ingredient disclosure is better than peer norms. Linked evidence
|
Animal Testing
?
Direct animal testing, contract animal testing, animal-testing-dependent
product development, or business lines where current safety/regulatory
approval normally relies on animal experiments. Stronger penalties apply
where animal testing is core, repeated, non-optional, or avoidable;
documented cruelty-free or non-animal methods reduce or eliminate the
penalty. Range: -8 to 0.
|
-3 |
Cosmetics, beauty, personal-care, and household-product businesses have material animal-testing exposure through product and ingredient safety systems. Linked evidence
|
Surveillance Capture
?
Invasive surveillance, unreasonably non-optional tracking, facial
recognition, biometric identification, or AI behavior scanning of
customers, workers, bystanders, or the public. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-1 |
SC Johnson privacy materials cover data collected online, through mobile applications, and offline through consumer helplines. Linked evidence
|
Bonus Credits
| Bonus | Credit | Why this credit |
|---|---|---|
Cost Transparency
?
Credit for clear posted prices, all-in fees, unit costs, public rate
cards, margin/cost visibility, or surplus-allocation transparency,
especially in markets where opaque quotes, hidden fees, or
individualized pricing are normal.
|
1 / 3 |
SC Johnson has published unusually extensive ingredient and allergen disclosure for household products, describes conduct considered under Cost Transparency relative to peers. Linked evidence
|
Confidence Basis
Confidence Basis
Confidence is computed from the evidence trail and review state, not typed into the profile by hand.
Medium 69/100
10 verified linked claims 9 direct axis claims 0 disputed claims 9/15 components covered
This confidence label measures the source-backed evidence trail. AI-scaffolded scores remain tentative until human review.
Claim confidence 14/20
10 verified linked claims
Source quality 11/18
Best source per verified claim, weighted by institutional reliability
Direct axis-specific claims 9/18
9 direct claims across 15 active components
Dispute load 12/12
0 disputed claims on this entity
Recency 10/10
Newest accepted timestamp: May 13, 2026
Reviewer status 7/12
Human-reviewed components score higher than AI scaffolding
Component coverage 6/10
9/15 evidence-bearing components have direct support
Evidence State
Evidence State
Claims and Sources
Claims are the evidence record. Each claim needs a source link, axis category, status, confidence level, and timestamp before it can support a score.
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.1SC Johnson is privately family-controlled rather than public-shareholder-controlled, which slightly reduces market-exit pressure but still gives consumers and workers no democratic control.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
2SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
3The company holds strong household brands, but its private family structure and transparency posture make it somewhat less extractive than the largest public CPG giants.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
4SC Johnson has published unusually extensive ingredient and allergen disclosure for household products, describes conduct considered under Cost Transparency relative to peers.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
5Air care, pest control, plastic bags, cleaning products, fragrances, and chemical manufacturing create ongoing environmental burden.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
6Insecticides, repellents, fragrances, disinfectants, and cleaners create direct exposure risks even when ingredient disclosure is better than peer norms.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
7SC Johnson retains conduct relevant to the no Accountability Opacity penalty: in this pass because its ingredient-transparency work materially improves product legibility relative to household-chemical competitors.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
8SC Johnson privacy materials cover data collected online, through mobile applications, and offline through consumer helplines.
- SC Johnson ingredient transparency fact sheetGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson ingredients we useGeneral web source · 58%
- SC Johnson privacy noticeGeneral web source · 58%
9OpenLobby records S.C. JOHNSON & SON, INC. lobbying on trade, tax, chemicals, consumer product safety, tariffs, science / technology, and other issues with about $2.5M in spending across 32 filings; the reviewed filings document private institutional lobbying over public rules rather than a public-interest advocacy role.
- OpenLobby — S.C. JOHNSON & SON, INC. lobbying profileGeneral web source · 58%
10SC Johnson has cosmetics/personal-care sector exposure animal-testing exposure based on its listed business model and current profile description: A private family-controlled household-products company selling cleaning, air-care, storage, pest-control, and household brands such as Windex, Pledge, Glade, OFF!, Raid, Ziploc, and Method. SC Johnson scores somewhat be…
- SC Johnson public siteGeneral web source · 58%
- FDA: Animal Testing & CosmeticsPrimary public record · 100%
11SC Johnson receives the Private Government badge because it combines large-scale private rule-setting over customers, workers, users, members, or counterparties with OpenLobby-documented lobbying of about $2.5M on public policy issues.
- OpenLobby — S.C. JOHNSON & SON, INC. lobbying profileGeneral web source · 58%
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How This Page Is Maintained
Evidence comes in through contributors, is checked by verifiers, and is synthesized by reviewers. Founder authority remains narrow and visible; scores recalculate when verified claims or the rubric change.
Civic Note
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Audit Log
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