Catching Up With Kaj Johnson, "Green Chef," a.k.a. Senior Director of R&D, method

CGT Executive Editor Kara Romanow gets Kaj Johnson's perspective on how to build, nurture and push the boundaries of sustainable best practices in the consumer goods market.


What keeps you up at night?

Johnson: Very little keeps me up at night - I sleep well! The best way I find to sleep well is to tackle challenges before they happen. When they do happen, I do what I can to solve them quickly.  If I am ever kept awake it's due to opportunities that pop up, leaving me simply too excited to go back to sleep. I can't wait to engage people who are smarter than I am to help make ideas better. I'm lucky to be surrounded by incredibly bright, passionate and creative people who always make this process fun and a lot more successful. 

The easy answer on biggest consumer goods challenge right now would be the economy and increasing prices, but that's not my top pick. I think another big challenge we face as formulators is solving some of the sustainability challenges in an even more aggressive way to make things more effective for everyone. This involves not only changes in the technology tools and know-how, but also how we evaluate environmental fitness at market, communicating benefits so consumers understand, and speeding development with our partners on sustainable sourcing, pricing and supply.

I also believe in collectively pushing the boundaries on best applications to bring economic and environmental profits. We have a critical role in being the catalyst for both.  It's easy to see lots of incremental improvements in current products on the market, and that's obviously important. But, we also have a role in creating momentum for bigger change in products, processes and behaviors.


How do manufacturers and retailers better collaborate?

Johnson: By talking openly and often about common and diverging interests, and by being clear on the goals of each. By putting ourselves in each others' shoes and testing how we would do things differently with that mind set. Also, by engaging each other in our goals and having some fun doing it.


How can manufacturers integrate sustainability into existing processes?

Johnson: Other manufacturers certainly seem interested and engaged in learning, growing and progressing. We all have lots to learn and lots to influence here besides just pumping out products. In a manufacturing process there is a whole bunch of things that are straight forward and a lot that require deeper involvement. Things like doing audits on energy and water usage. Measuring and tracking progress and setting future goals are great steps.

Simply being good and inquisitive goes a long way in getting the right information. Ask question after question. Things like looking deeper into the sourcing of the materials -- where does it come from, how does it get here, how is it handled, what else might be added to it that I might not know, how is it produced and what could be the watch outs of the process, is it really the best material to meet the goal?


What is the most important thing that companies should consider when trying to become more environmentally/socially responsible?

Johnson: Make progress every day. A phrase used around our office that I love is "progress not perfection." This applies to both our products and to how we think and educate ourselves on environmentally fit products and ingredients. If our goal for tomorrow is making the perfect product, we will make slow progress and may never introduce it. But, if we can make significant progress every day, then our products are in a much better place and so is everyone that touches them: consumers, manufacturers, chemical producers and retailers. Perfection is tough with time limits, but aggressive and continual progress gets us darn close, fast.

It's a super time to be a formulator right now with all the change and technical challenge of emerging materials, natural chemistry and evolving consumer demands. Great fun and challenge for all of us to make a difference in the future.