Zep Stewardship Vision 2025 Logo

Zep Stewardship Overview

Zep鈥檚 purpose is to make the planet safer, cleaner and more productive through sustainable practices and products while making a positive impact on people, our customers and our communities.
To live up to our company purpose, Zep Stewardship focuses on environmental, social and corporate responsibility. We have a duty to be good corporate citizens and caretakers of the world around us. Zep Stewardship is a commitment to our purpose and a commitment to preserve the environment for future generations.

Vision 2025

Vision 2025

Since 1937, Zep has been creating value for customers by offering a comprehensive selection of top quality industrial and janitorial cleaning products, delivered with unique chemistry formulations, superior service, and unmatched technical support. In 2020, Zep launched Vision 2025 鈥� a roadmap designed to unite our employees around our company鈥檚 common purpose and guide our priorities for the future. With Vision 2025 as our true north, our goal is to give our customers, employees and communities a clear understanding of what we value as a company.

Learn More About Vision 2025

Zep Stewardship: Our Priority Areas

To determine the initial areas of focus, Zep conducted a materiality assessment to reveal how we could make the most significant impact early on. The assessment is based on standards from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a world-wide organization dedicated to increasing ESG transparency with the most widely used standards for sustainability reporting.

Based on the results of the assessment, we determined our five priority areas: Health and Safety, Carbon Emissions, Water Usage and Effluents, Marketing and Labeling, and Diversity and Inclusion. As the Zep Stewardship initiative expands, we will seek to widen our impact to other areas.

Health & Safety

Health & Safety

Continue to improve health and safety best practices for our customers, employees and communities.

Zep takes pride in helping maintain and improve the health and safety of individuals and businesses, and we want to continue to be an industry leader by innovating and improving our products and practices.

Our actions:
  • Help customers achieve biosecurity and secure their environments from infectious diseases, like COVID-19
  • Enhance real-time reporting on workplace incidents to reduce future injuries among employees
  • Implemented a new company-wide health and wellness outreach program

Carbon Emissions

Carbon Emissions

Reduce Zep鈥檚 carbon footprint through targeted, long-term action plans and develop solutions to help customers meet their own emissions goals.

Zep鈥檚 commitment to making the world cleaner, safer and more productive includes advanced practices to reduce carbon emissions and enhance our sustainability as a company.

Our actions:
  • Collected baseline data to inform long-term carbon emissions reduction strategy
  • Reduced carbon emissions through optimized shipment of goods, reduced travel and reduced office space usage
  • Increased usage of post-consumer waste (PCW) packaging and continuing to reduce carbon emissions

Water & Effluents

Water & Effluents

Enhance and maintain processes to reduce water pollution and water usage for both customers and Zep.

Zep鈥檚 water usage and wastewater management team prioritizes safety, environmental management practices and stormwater pollution prevention.

Our actions:
  • Enhancing long-term steps to reduce water usage internally and at customer sites
  • Audited current water pollution plans in all facilities to establish company-wide standards
  • Maintain best-in-class standards to reduce water pollution

Marketing & Labeling

Marketing & Labeling

Be a trusted partner and resource on new chemical regulations and compliance for customers

Zep is committed to improving our portfolio of cleaning solutions with enhanced product labels to better serve our customers and partners. You can clean with confidence knowing that your Zep products exceed environmental and safety regulations and performance.

Our actions:
  • Established plan to boost awareness on new chemical regulations and compliance
  • Proposed a company-wide formulation policy to improve environmental and safety performance of products
  • Developing long-term steps to continuously improve the environmental profile of our portfolio

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion

Foster an inclusive environment that actively reflects the uniqueness of our employees, customers and suppliers.

At Zep, our strength is in our diversity. We understand the importance of an inclusive workplace, and we know true innovation comes from a mix of expertise, backgrounds and experiences. We strive to create an environment where people feel respected and empowered to do their best work.

Our actions:
  • Benchmark Zep鈥檚 D&I metrics using GRI guidelines, a worldwide standard
  • Developing plans to increase gender and ethnic diversity among employees and suppliers by 20%
  • Created employee action committees and diversity and inclusion roundtables to foster a more inclusive workplace
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