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Kohler

Kohler

Evaluation Completed: 
February 14, 2025
Adults
Bathroom
Home Improvement
Kitchen
Moving
Renovating

Kohler is a larger domestic company with a number of international brands making a variety of products primarily for the bathroom and kitchen. They also own brands in the energy, personal care, and hospitality industries as well. This evaluation is on home improvement brands and products in their portfolio. During our review we found solid foundations on ingredient safety and sustainability topics, with some particularly notable efforts related to how they treat people. We think the company has the potential to bring some leadership in ingredient safety and sustainability to the home improvement industry once they tackle some of the more advanced areas of impact.

Hilde Status:

Avoid

Consider

Recommended

We try to avoid purchasing or using products made by this company or their brands in our homes.
We may decide to purchase or use products made by this company or their brands in our homes when other options are not accessible.
We regularly try to purchase and use products made by this company or their brands in our homes.
Hilde Ratings
Topic
Rating
Ingredient Safety
Environmental impact
People Benefits
Governance
Hilde Approved Certifications
No Hilde approved certifications included
Hilde Likes

Engagement on public policy

Focusing on water use & efficiency

Good focus on people issues

Solid foundation on ingredient safety

Opportunities for Improvement

Benchmarking ingredient safety practices

Adopting a context-based approach to sustainability

Improving producer responsibility

Verification of benefits for people efforts

Bolder action on climate impacts

Additional Information
Parent Company:
None
Owned Brands:
Ann Sacks, Kallista, Robern, Sterling, Kast
Product Types:
Faucets, sinks, bathtubs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, home decor, lighting, mirrors, cabinets, vanities, shower heads, ceramic tiles, stone products

Evaluation Summary

Basic
Advanced
Leadership
Foundational Gaps

The company does not meet sufficient baseline criteria for this category and has many opportunities for improvement.

Solid Baseline

The company meets most of our basic criteria and sometimes demonstrates a deeper commitment than other companies on issues in this category.

Strong Performance:

The company appears to be a top performer in this evaluation category and exhibits leadership on one or more of the issues we evaluate.

Hilde Likes

Solid foundation on ingredient safety

This company appears to do a good job covering the basics and is ready to tackle more advanced topics related to ingredient safety

Opportunities for Improvement

Benchmarking ingredient safety practices

We would like to see this company participate in the Chemical Footprint Policy to help benchmark their policies and practices against other companies publicly share their results

Foundational Gaps

The company does not meet sufficient baseline criteria for this category and has many opportunities for improvement.

Solid Baseline

The company meets most of our basic criteria and sometimes demonstrates a deeper commitment than other companies on issues in this category.

Strong Performance:

The company appears to be a top performer in this evaluation category and exhibits leadership on one or more of the issues we evaluate.

Hilde Likes

Focusing on water use & efficiency

We’re pleased to see an emphasis on water use efficiency given the power the company has to influence water use across the lifecycles of many of their products

Opportunities for Improvement

Bolder action on climate impacts

The company should start measuring and reducing Scope 3 emissions along with publishing a decarbonization transition plan

Improving producer responsibility

Given the hard to recycle nature of many kinds of the products this company makes and sells we think they should provide a manufacturer takeback or recovery program

Foundational Gaps

The company does not meet sufficient baseline criteria for this category and has many opportunities for improvement.

Solid Baseline

The company meets most of our basic criteria and sometimes demonstrates a deeper commitment than other companies on issues in this category.

Strong Performance:

The company appears to be a top performer in this evaluation category and exhibits leadership on one or more of the issues we evaluate.

Hilde Likes

Good focus on people issues

This company appears to have a holistic approach to treating people well including a credible responsible sourcing process to help protect human rights for workers in their supply chain

Opportunities for Improvement

Verification of benefits for people efforts

This company should start using or expand their use of trustworthy certifications related to strengthen their claims related to creating benefits for people

Foundational Gaps

The company does not meet sufficient baseline criteria for this category and has many opportunities for improvement.

Solid Baseline

The company meets most of our basic criteria and sometimes demonstrates a deeper commitment than other companies on issues in this category.

Strong Performance:

The company appears to be a top performer in this evaluation category and exhibits leadership on one or more of the issues we evaluate.

Hilde Likes
None Identified
Opportunities for Improvement
None Identified

SubscriptReal people (not AI) do our evaluations. If you think you see something we missed, please let us know! You can read more about our company evaluation process here and check some of the limitations of our Evaluations here.The content on this site, including for example the evaluations and ratings, are for informational purposes and represent solely the  opinions of Hilde.  They do not represent endorsements or investment advice. Hilde makes no promises regarding the content of its site, including without limitation its accuracy, quality, completeness, and timeliness.  Accordingly, Hilde is not liable for any loss or damage that might arise from reliance on the content of the site. For more information, visit our Terms of Use.

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