Consumer Goods Technology - July 2008 - (Page 10)

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? J O H N S O N : 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 CONSUMER GOODS TECHNOLOGY | J U LY 2 0 0 8 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 knowhow, 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 Kaj and Skeena, boundaries on best a springer spaniel applications to bring that belongs to his economic and envi- fishing buddy, Ed. ronmental 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. | W W W. C O N S U M E R G O O D S . C O M FIRST JOB: Shoveling pig, cow and goat manure at the Pleasanton Fair Grounds W H O I N S P I R E S YO U ? Parents and animals; they teach us a great deal. H OW D O YO U R E WA R D YO U R S E L F ? Fly fishing and camping FAV O R I T E M OV I E : A River Runs Through It FAV O R I T E M U S I C I A N : Santana FAV O R I T E VA C AT I O N S P O T : Burney Falls - where I’m going as soon as I finish this. HOBBY: Fly fishing, camping, ripping stuff apart and (hopefully) putting it back together again 10 http://www.methodhome.com http://WWW.CONSUMERGOODS.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Consumer Goods Technology - July 2008

Consumer Goods Technology - July 2008 Contents Edit Note Insights Special Report Catching Up With... Energy-Minded Efficiency Waste to Wonder Greater Good Natural Business Built to Last Setting Sustainable Goals Sustainability, Part 2 CGT Events Between the Lines

Consumer Goods Technology - July 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.