The low-carbon transition of leading global home and personal care companies is evolving from energy conservation and emissions reduction at the production stage toward full life cycle management covering upstream raw materials, formulation performance, and emissions during product use.
Recently, with the support of Carbon Newture’s digital carbon management services, sodium percarbonate (SPC) and tetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED) products manufactured by Zhejiang Jinke Household Chemical Materials Co., Ltd. received product carbon footprint certificates issued by SGS, an independent third-party certification body. The certifications provide downstream home and personal care brands with traceable, lower-carbon raw material options and support continued emissions reductions through product performance upgrades and supply chain collaboration.
Emissions Reduction Requirements of Home and Personal Care Brands Are Extending Upstream
Recent updates to the climate targets and emissions reduction initiatives of leading domestic and international home and personal care companies indicate that low-carbon transformation has entered a more granular stage of supply chain management. Companies are no longer focusing solely on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from their own operations. Instead, they are extending their emissions reduction priorities to Scope 3. Raw materials affect brand owners’ Scope 3 performance in both purchased goods and services and the use phase of sold products.
The first area affected is the carbon footprint of raw materials. For home and personal care brands, the procurement of surfactants, bleaching agents, bleach activators, enzymes, and other ingredients contributes to Scope 3 Category 1 emissions from purchased goods and services. As leading companies continue to advance supplier decarbonization and product carbon footprint management, the ability of upstream material suppliers to provide product carbon footprint data is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for entering green supply chains.
Source: Corporate ESG reports and official disclosures; compiled and visualized by Carbon Newture.
The consumer use phase is another distinctive emissions reduction stage in the life cycle of laundry detergent products. Emissions generated during product use are influenced by factors such as washing temperature, cycle duration, and dosage. Water temperature is particularly important because of its impact on energy consumption, with nearly 60% of laundry-related carbon emissions associated with temperature.[1] Consequently, developing high-performance formulations for low-temperature washing has become one of the long-term strategies adopted by home and personal care brands to reduce product life cycle emissions.
Carbon footprint breakdown of clothes washing. Source: P&G official website.
When advancing Scope 3 emissions reductions, home and personal care brands therefore focus both on the carbon data of upstream raw materials and on product innovations that enable low-temperature washing, thereby reducing emissions during consumer use.
Against this backdrop, the ability of upstream material suppliers to provide traceable product carbon footprints and ingredients that support low-temperature washing performance has become an important capability for responding to brands’ supply chain decarbonization requirements.
Jinke Household Chemical: Supporting Downstream Decarbonization Through Traceable Carbon Data and Low-Temperature Performance
Located in the national-level Shangyu High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Jinke Household Chemical Materials Co., Ltd. is a well-established high-tech manufacturer of oxygen-based bleaching agents and disinfectants. The company primarily engages in the research, development, production, and sale of SPC-based oxygen bleaching auxiliaries, while also supplying TAED, potassium peroxymonosulfate compound, TC, hydrogen peroxide, PEI, and other fine chemical products.
Major products of Jinke Household Chemical. Source: Jinke Household Chemical’s official WeChat account.
As the lead drafting organization for China’s national SPC industry standard, Jinke Household Chemical has been recognized as a national-level specialized and innovative “Little Giant” enterprise and a National Key High-Tech Enterprise. It is committed to providing competitive products and solutions to leading domestic and international home and personal care brands. The company currently serves major multinational companies including P&G, Reckitt, Henkel, Unilever, Kao, and Lion, and has established partnerships with prominent Chinese brands such as Liby, Nice Group, Blue Moon, and WhiteCat.
Partners of Jinke Household Chemical. Source: Jinke Household Chemical’s official website.
In response to downstream brands’ demand for supply chain carbon data, Jinke Household Chemical has continued to advance cleaner production and circular economy practices across its manufacturing operations. Through process upgrades, material recovery, energy conservation, and efficiency improvements, the company has worked to reduce the carbon footprints of its products.
For its two principal product lines, SPC and TAED, Jinke Household Chemical has continuously improved its manufacturing processes and developed advanced technologies for concentrating and recovering SPC mother liquor and recycling waste acid from TAED production. These technologies address challenges associated with high-salinity wastewater from SPC production and acidic wastewater from TAED production, while enabling material recovery and reducing energy consumption. The company has also integrated variable-frequency energy-saving systems, waste-heat recovery and recirculation, and multi-effect evaporation technologies, while advancing distributed control system automation upgrades.
Central control center at Jinke Household Chemical’s production facility. Source: Jinke Household Chemical’s official website.
Building on these efforts, Jinke Household Chemical completed product carbon footprint assessments for SPC and TAED, converting the results of its low-carbon production management into quantifiable and traceable product-level carbon data. This provides downstream customers with credible data support for green procurement and raw material carbon accounting.
In addition, Jinke Household Chemical’s SPC and TAED products can be used in oxygen-based bleaching systems for laundry detergents. SPC is a commonly used oxygen bleaching agent that provides a source of peroxide for bleaching and stain removal. TAED is an effective partner for peroxide-based bleaching agents such as SPC. It can be activated at relatively low temperatures to release active substances such as peracetic acid, thereby improving bleaching, stain removal, disinfection, and odor-removal performance under low-temperature washing conditions.
Together, the two ingredients not only enhance the cleaning and stain-removal performance of detergents, but also help formulations maintain activity at lower temperatures. This supports brands in exploring emissions reductions during the consumer use phase.
Conclusion
From supplier carbon data requirements to emissions reductions during the use phase of sold products, the home and personal care industry is placing increasing emphasis on the low-carbon value of upstream material suppliers. By completing credible carbon footprint assessments and reliable traceability for its SPC and TAED products, Jinke Household Chemical has achieved an important milestone in its own low-carbon transition while also responding to downstream customers’ dual demand for raw material carbon footprint data and low-temperature washing performance.
Looking ahead, Jinke Household Chemical will continue to uphold its environmental commitment to “green, low-carbon, and sustainable” development. The company will further optimize its energy mix, upgrade production processes, promote resource recycling, and develop products that combine high cleaning performance with low-carbon value. Through stronger carbon management capabilities and differentiated product functionality, Jinke Household Chemical aims to support the low-carbon transformation of the home and personal care industry.
Reference
[1] P&G official website, https://us.pg.com/blogs/pg-european-innovation-expo-live-podcast-series
