Robern
Evaluation Completed:
February 14, 2025
Adults
Bathroom
Home Improvement
Kitchen
Moving
Renovating
Evaluation Summary
Company Insights
Robern is owned by the company Kohler. Hilde evaluates parent companies rather than individual brands. You can read more about why we think this approach is more helpful for consumers on our blog.
Kohler is a larger domestic company with a number of international brands making a variety of products primarily for the bathroom and kitchen. During our review we found a very strong foundation on 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 additional leadership in safety and sustainability to this industry.
Ingredient Safety
Foundational Gaps
Solid Baseline
Strong Performance
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 Project or similar initiative to help benchmark their policies and practices against other companies publicly share their results
Category Definition
Our ingredient safety evaluation criteria are designed to help us determine how a company measures, manages, and discloses, the use of chemicals of concern that may be present in raw materials, ingredients, manufacturing processes, and finished products.
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.
Environmental Impact
Foundational Gaps
Solid Baseline
Strong Performance
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
We think this 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 would like to see this company provide a manufacturer takeback or recovery program beyond what is required by state or local laws
Category Definition
Our environmental impact reduction evaluation criteria are designed to help us determine how a company measures, manages, and discloses information about the impacts that their operations, products, and supply chain may have on our air, land, water, and ecosystems.
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.
Worker Fairness
Foundational Gaps
Solid Baseline
Strong Performance
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 high-quality certifications related to strengthen their claims related to creating benefits for people
Category Definition
Our worker fairness evaluation criteria are designed to help us determine how a company measures, manages, and discloses information about the way they treat their employees, workers in their supply chain, and other stakeholders.
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.
Accountability
Foundational Gaps
Solid Baseline
Strong Performance
Hilde Likes
None Identified
Opportunities for Improvement
Adopting a context-based approach to sustainability
We think this company is ready to take a leadership position by measuring and managing performance against planetary boundaries and thresholds to assess true operational sustainability
Category Defition
Our corporate accountability evaluation criteria are designed to help us determine how a company integrates sustainability across their organization to help govern decision making and engage with external stakeholders in socially responsible ways.
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.