In 2021, we announced our intention to separate Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Health business and to create a new publicly traded company that would take its place as a leader at the intersection of healthcare and consumer goods.
The new company, named Kenvue, is committed to helping consumers realize the extraordinary power of everyday care. At Kenvue, combining the power of science with meaningful human insights and digital-first capabilities empowers more than one billion people to live healthier lives every day. Kenvue’s portfolio of iconic brands is built for moments that uniquely matter to consumers and drives positive health outcomes around the world.
Thibaut Mongon, formerly the Worldwide Chairman, Consumer Health for Johnson & Johnson, serves as Chief Executive Officer of Kenvue. We remain on track to complete the separation in 2023, subject to market conditions.
The name Kenvue is inspired by two powerful ideas: “ken,” meaning knowledge, and “vue,” referencing sight. With rich knowledge of human needs and deep consumer insights, Kenvue will deliver meaningful, personal health solutions.
Alongside preparation to establish Kenvue as a standalone company, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health has advanced its mission to improve total health for all—for individuals at every age and stage of life, for communities and for our planet. Supported by an $800 million investment, our Healthy Lives Mission aims to:
- fight preventable diseases through impactful education and partnerships, starting with smoking cessation and skin cancer prevention;
- enhance product transparency to help consumers make more informed choices about personal health products; and
- improve the sustainability of our products and operations by using more recycled materials, making packaging easier to recycle or reuse and powering operations with renewable electricity.
Progress in advancing our Healthy Lives Mission in 2022 included:
Promoting skin cancer awareness
Neutrogena’s In the Sun in-school program brought skin cancer prevention awareness to more than 150,000 students across the U.S. throughout 2021 and 2022. Following the release of Neutrogena Studios’ award-winning, feature-length documentary film, In the Sun, in 2021 to elevate awareness and understanding of sun safety and skin cancer for all skin types and colors, more than 2,000 schools have participated in the in-school education program over two years. Feedback from the in-school program amongst school students surveyed is that 55% of students said they will change their sun safety habits as a result of watching the film.
Globally in 2020, more than 1.5 million cases of skin cancers were diagnosed and more than 120,000 skin cancer-associated deaths were reported.52
Supporting smoking cessation
NICORETTE brought the first nicotine replacement therapy to market more than 40 years ago and—backed by more than 50 years of research and innovation—remains committed to eradicating smoking. In 2022, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health continued to support smoking cessation by joining the launch event of the WHO Tobacco Cessation Consortium. The Consortium is a public-private coalition to support the WHO’s work on tobacco cessation worldwide. Our participation in this consortium builds on NICORETTE’s previous support of the WHO’s Access Initiative to Quit Tobacco, which delivered positive results in terms of smokers who quit completely. NICORETTE has donated more than $1.5 million worth of Nicorette patches to help people quit smoking.
Only 30% of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users have access to the tools to help them to quit successfully.53
Advocating for menstrual dignity
In 2022, STAYFREE joined UNICEF for another year to promote education about menstrual hygiene and address menstrual poverty in Brazil.
More than 11 million people are directly affected by menstrual poverty in Brazil, and 94% of low-income women do not know what menstrual poverty is.54
Access to menstrual hygiene is a public health issue, as well as a human rights issue, according to the UN.55 Many women, especially those in low-income regions, live in menstrual poverty, which means lack of basic access to buy hygiene products and often lack of access to water and sanitation. In 2022, STAYFREE joined UNICEF for another year to address menstrual poverty in Brazil. Between 2021 and 2022, STAYFREE donated two sanitation pads in menstrual hygiene kits distributed by UNICEF to 45,000 teenagers in Brazil and supported educational outreach widely across the country. Also, in India, STAYFREE continued its “It’s just a period” campaign to normalize the topic of menstruation in India, leveraging Daughters Day for a second year as an occasion to destigmatize the first period experience, especially in many households where menstruation is still considered taboo, by educating and involving other family members for support.
Expanding product transparency for consumers
Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health expanded its product transparency dashboard across several of our leading Consumer Health brands, helping empower consumers to make informed choices about the personal care products they use and rely on. Our transparency dashboard for consumers, launched in 2021, includes product-specific information about ingredients, science and sustainability to meet consumer needs. In 2022, we expanded the product transparency dashboard across several of our Consumer Health brands, tailoring information to the needs of consumers on a brand-by-brand basis. JOHNSON’S Baby also unveiled this dashboard in leading global markets outside the U.S., namely Brazil, Canada and the UK.
Katie Decker
Global Head, Essential Health and Global Customer Engagement, Managing Director, Canada, Kenvue
Improving packaging sustainability
We are advancing our Healthy Lives Mission by taking important steps to reduce the environmental impact of our personal care product packaging by using less virgin plastic and increasing our use of recycled materials while improving the recyclability and reusability of our packaging. These efforts align with our Consumer Health Packaging targets and support our participation as a signatory to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.
Consumer Health Sustainable Packaging Targets
Eliminate 100%
of polystyrene jars and black plastic bottles from our global portfolio by 2022.
Use 100%
recyclable, reusable or compostable plastic packaging by 2025.
Use 100%
certified or post-consumer recycled (PCR) paper and pulp-based packaging by 2025.
Reduce our total annual use
of virgin plastics in packaging weight by 25% by 2025 compared to 2020, achieved through a combination of recycled plastic, plastic packaging reductions and more reuse models.
Learn more about our progress as a signatory to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.
In alignment with our target to eliminate 100% of polystyrene jars and black plastic bottles from our global portfolio, we ceased sourcing packaging components with this resin material in 2022. In addition, we improved the sustainability of several products and packaging, including:
- LISTERINE and OGX introduced innovative product formats, including mouthwash concentrates and shampoo bars, that reduce the need for packaging.
- AVEENO, NEUTROGENA, JOHNSON’s Baby and LE PETIT MARSEILLAIS launched reuse and refill solutions to reduce plastic use compared to existing packaging.
- o.b. introduced organic tampons made with 100% certified organic cotton and are 100% plastic free from top to string.
- CAREFREE launched Organic Cotton Topsheet Liners with 100% certified organic cotton topsheet.
Several brands in our portfolio also increased the use of PCR plastic packaging materials and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®)-certified paperboard.
Collaborating for greater impact
Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health collaborates with industry peers, NGOs and suppliers to advance our sustainability and transparency objectives. Some of our partnerships and collaborations in 2022 included:
- The Animal-Free Safety Assessment (AFSA) Collaboration is a forum that brings the collective voice of nonprofit and industry leaders together in support of education and advocacy to help eliminate the need for animal testing for cosmetics.
- The EcoBeautyScore Consortium, an industry-led collaboration of more than 60 companies and associations to help consumers understand the environmental impact of cosmetic and personal care products through the launch of an environmental scoring system for cosmetic products to help inform consumer purchasing decisions.
- More than 160 companies and organizations across the packaging value chain, as part of the Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0, plan to assess whether a pioneering digital watermarking technology can enable better sorting and higher-quality recycling rates for packaging in the EU.
Additionally, to advance a circular economy and packaging sustainability, we continued our collaboration with several organizations, including the Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastics Waste Coalition of Action, the Closed Loop Infrastructure Fund and the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering Circular Materials Lab, helping to develop new global industry design rules for sustainable packaging, expand the recycling infrastructure in North America and research circular flexible film packaging solutions respectively.
52 WHO, “Ultraviolet radiation,” https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ultraviolet-radiation, accessed February 2023.
53WHO, “WHO Director-General approves tobacco cessation consortium,” https://www.who.int/news/item/05-11-2021-tobacco-cessation-consortium, accessed February 2023.
54According to research commissioned by STAYFREE, in partnership with the Kyra Institute and MosaicLab, 2021.
55UN WOMEN, “Towards gender equality through sanitation access,” https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2016/3/towards-gender-equality-through-sanitation-access, accessed February 2023.
