Clorox Captures Duquesne’s Green to Gold Award

The annual Green to Gold award, presented by the School of Business Administration for excellence across social, environmental and economic performance indicators, will be given this year to The Clorox Co. The company was selected because of its efforts to simultaneously improve performance while minimizing the company’s greenhouse gas emissions footprint.

Alexis Limberakis, director of environmental sustainability at The Clorox Co., will accept the award via video conference on Friday, April 24, during the business school’s second annual MBA Sustainability alumni event in the Power Center Ballroom.

Limberakis leads a cross-functional Eco Team responsible for setting and driving the company’s environmental sustainability strategy. She and her team work with business partners to integrate sustainability improvements into product development and packaging, reduce the company’s operational and workplace footprints, and make sustainability improvements to the company’s upstream supply chain, according to Dr. Robert Sroufe, the Murrin Chair in Global Competitiveness and award presenter.

To achieve this year’s honor, Clorox outperformed other publicly traded U.S. companies with a commitment to sustainability. MBA Sustainability research fellows Brandon Martin and Phil Venanzi conducted the analysis with oversight by faculty and confirmation by Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston, authors of the popular Green to Gold book. The research showed that Clorox stood out from other finalists by consistently delivering shareholder value and facilitating positive change in social and environmental impacts. The company exhibited an overall cohesive approach to sustainability, effectively aligning core business strategies with corporate responsibility initiatives.

The students’ analysis revealed that Clorox achieved five of six strengths in the ratings and research of the MSCI Environmental, Social and Governance factors (formerly called the Global Socrates database). These factors are incorporated into investment analysis for thousands of companies worldwide, uncovering risks and opportunities that traditional investment research may not detect.

Clorox also attained above-average industrial success for three years, and demonstrated leadership according to these “Wave Rider” criteria discussed in Green to Gold. Named after this noted book, the national award has been presented since 2009.

“This award program provides deserved recognition for companies that are striving—and succeeding—in business settings that demand they pay attention to the triple bottom line,” said Dr. Dean McFarlin, business school dean. “Our MBA Sustainability fellows and their peers have the opportunity to help define what this type of success looks like while learning from remarkable corporate examples. In this way, the program is significant both to our future industry leaders at Duquesne and current industry front-runners.”