Pine-Sol: Delivering More Value With Less Impact

Clorox’s environmental, social and governance goals are integrated into our IGNITE strategy because we believe they create value for our company, brands, people and communities. We’ve focused on areas where we can make the biggest impact, and much of our progress is realized through the work of our purpose-driven brands.

Following the debut of Pine-Sol’s new, more concentrated line of multisurface cleaners earlier this year, we spoke with Katie Leber, our Pine-Sol brand manager, about how the brand is delivering high-quality, effective cleaning solutions.

Reformulating a cleaning product is no small task — what prompted Pine-Sol to take this next step in its product journey?

Pine-Sol has offered consumers an effective, dilutable, versatile cleaning solution at an affordable price for nearly a century. We know our consumers already dilute Pine-Sol with water to make it the right strength for different jobs, whether mopping, spraying down their shower, rinsing out a trash can or wiping dust off baseboards. So, when this project was kicked off a few years ago, it seemed like the perfect time to bring consumers an even more concentrated formula in smaller, easier to manage bottles that leveraged the dilution behavior they were used to.

What about this new Pine-Sol offering makes it more sustainable?

The new concentrated Pine-Sol was formulated to have twice the cleaning power in every drop, meaning you only need a bottle half the size to make the same amount of cleaning solution as before. Using smaller bottles — 40% smaller for retail and 50% smaller for professional — means we’re using less plastic to give consumers the same benefit. This also reduces the amount of water we’re shipping per dose, with the goal of reducing our shipping footprint.

Reducing plastic and other waste in packaging is a priority for our company. What steps were taken to make the materials used in the design of these bottles more sustainable?

In addition to reducing the amount of plastic used, these new Pine-Sol bottles are made with a minimum of 50% post-consumer recycled plastic, which is a big step toward our 2025 corporate sustainability goals. We plan to continue to increase the PCR in our bottles until we get to 100%.

Our journey to reduce plastic isn’t just about following trends — it’s about leading by example and setting a new standard for sustainability in our industry. We’re rethinking our packaging and designing products that are environmentally conscious without sacrificing quality.

How does this Pine-Sol innovation align with broader sustainability commitments in our company’s IGNITE strategy?

As is true with all Clorox products, minimizing waste is top of mind for Pine-Sol when we formulate, manufacture and package our products because delivering value to our consumers means helping them reduce the environmental impact left behind. This innovation specifically contributes to Clorox’s ESG goal of 50% combined reduction in virgin plastic and fiber packaging by 2030 by both reducing the total plastic used by the brand and shifting to post-consumer-recycled plastic.