SC Johnson

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

Final Score 4* D - Extractive

* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.

Base Material19
Bonus+1
Cap41Ownership <= 4 and Governance <= 4
After Cap20
Penalties-16
G
Private Government badge

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]

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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
  • 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. [1]
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
  • context SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. [2]
  • context 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. [1]
  • context 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. [3]
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
  • context SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. [2]
  • context 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. [1]
  • context 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. [3]
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
  • context SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. [2]
  • context 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. [1]
  • context 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. [3]
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
  • context SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. [2]
  • context 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. [1]
  • context 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. [3]
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
  • context SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. [2]
  • context 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. [1]
  • context 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. [3]
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
  • 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. [3]
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
  • SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. [2]
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
  • context SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable. [2]
  • context 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. [1]
  • context 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. [3]

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
  • Air care, pest control, plastic bags, cleaning products, fragrances, and chemical manufacturing create ongoing environmental burden. [5]
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
  • OpenLobby 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. [9]
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
  • Insecticides, repellents, fragrances, disinfectants, and cleaners create direct exposure risks even when ingredient disclosure is better than peer norms. [6]
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
  • SC 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… [10]
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
  • SC Johnson privacy materials cover data collected online, through mobile applications, and offline through consumer helplines. [8]

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
  • SC Johnson has published unusually extensive ingredient and allergen disclosure for household products, describes conduct considered under Cost Transparency relative to peers. [4]

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

Profile stateAI draft / human-pending
VerificationUnverified
ConfidenceMedium confidence (AI)
ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
Correction routeUse “Challenge this rating” for factual errors, missing counterevidence, source problems, or calculation mistakes.
Company responseCompany representatives can submit source-backed corrections; payment never changes scores or reviewer authority.

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.

Ownership Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

2SC Johnson sells useful cleaning, pest-control, air-care, storage, and household products, but many are chemically intensive or disposable.

Product Integrity Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

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.

Market Conduct Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

4SC Johnson has published unusually extensive ingredient and allergen disclosure for household products, describes conduct considered under Cost Transparency relative to peers.

Cost Transparency Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

5Air care, pest control, plastic bags, cleaning products, fragrances, and chemical manufacturing create ongoing environmental burden.

Ecological Harm Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

6Insecticides, repellents, fragrances, disinfectants, and cleaners create direct exposure risks even when ingredient disclosure is better than peer norms.

Toxic Products Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

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.

Accountability Opacity Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

8SC Johnson privacy materials cover data collected online, through mobile applications, and offline through consumer helplines.

Surveillance Capture Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

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.

Policy Capture Verified High confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

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…

Animal Testing Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

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.

Private Government Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

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