Consumer goods producer SC Johnson this week disclosed the fragrance ingredients in all of its Glade products, marking the first time a full list of such ingredients has been released on a product-specific level.

Companies aren’t required to disclose fragrance components, which are considered trade secrets. But SC Johnson – maker of products like Drano, Pledge, Raid, Saran, Shout and more – announced plans last year to become the first company to disclose fragrance ingredients in its products.

The company has shared the full list fragrance ingredients used in all of its product lines since 2012, but this week updated its WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com website with details about the chemicals inside its Glade line of air fresheners, candles and oils.

The company made a conscious decision to start with a scent-driven product line, said Kelly Semrau, SC Johnson’s senior vice president of global corporate affairs, communications and sustainability. “Start with the hardest thing first, right?” she said. “We also felt starting with those products made the strongest statement about the level of our commitment to transparency – Glade is an iconic brand that’s known for fragrance.”

The company first began working on ingredient disclosure in 2009, and it took about 10 full-time staff and several million dollars to get the program to this point, she said. “We really hope to bring the industry along with us on this. If the industry had been doing this already, it would not have required so many resources.”

The process may be more complex for perfume companies, which have more complicated fragrance profiles, she said, but added that companies making products that are applied to the skin – most of SC Johnson’s are not, with the exception of its Off brand insect repellant – really ought to share that information with consumers.

SC Johnson employs about 100 staff toxicologists, who test every ingredient in every product, according to Semrau.

Fragrances have always been different because the company purchases them from fragrance houses, but SC Johnson sets strict parameters for its fragrance suppliers, and assesses fragrances for personal health and environmental risks before putting them into SC Johnson products, Semrau said.

The company also uses 1,300 out of the 3,500 fragrance ingredients that meet the International Fragrance Association’s standards, having eliminated what it considered to be “problematic” fragrance ingredients from its palate in 2012.

Some public health advocates, such as environmental health nonprofit Women’s Voices for the Earth, would like to see the company’s transparency commitment extend to publicly sharing more information about its Greenlist process for vetting ingredients.

WVE – which commissioned independent lab tests that found chemicals of concern lurking in the company’s cleaning products – has been campaigning since May for more transparency about the criteria behind SC Johnson’s vetting process.

SC Johnson’s Greenlist process, which it holds up as evidence of its product safety, still allows synthetic musks,” said Beth Conway, a spokesperson for the organization. “How do hormone-disrupting chemicals like those pass muster in a screening process customers are supposed to trust to protect health and the environment? It’s great that SC Johnson is coming clean about its fragrance ingredients, and they have made progress removing certain toxic chemicals from products and listing product ingredients online and on some product labels. But if SC Johnson truly wants to be a trustworthy company, it needs to do more to inspire consumer confidence.”

The company launched its Greenlist process in 2001 to help it choose the best ingredients for its products, and released a special section describing the process and disclosing its full list of restricted use materials as part of its sustainability report last year, said Jam Stewart, senior director of global public affairs and communication at SC Johnson. “We absolutely want to be transparent, which is why we dedicated a 16-page spread to the Greenlist in our most recent public report.”

So far, the response to the fragrance disclosure program has been positive from both consumers and NGOs, Semrau said, although the company has heard from NGOs that want it to go further. “I understand that, I do,” she said. “And we will.”

In addition to pushing for more transparency, NGOs are also urging the company to look at eliminating more chemicals of concern from its products. The Glade products contain mostly benign chemical ingredients, but there are still a few concerning components that public health advocates argue shouldn’t be there. These include known allergens like benzyl benzoate and Lilial (also known as butylphenyl methylpropanal), as well as BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), a toluene-based antioxidant that is not only a skin irritant and allergen, but also has been linked to tumor formation and developmental effects in animal studies.

Next up for SC Johnson is a continued rollout of fragrance disclosures across its US product lines and, next month, the launch of its ingredient disclosure program in Europe. “Our goal is that by around 2019 or 2020 we will be globally disclosing all ingredients in all products in all markets,” Semrau said.

She added that the disclosure program is largely being pushed by the company’s CEO Fisk Johnson. “He is just adamant about us using the greenest chemistry possible, and he feels that if we’re using the best ingredients and best processes, there’s no reason not to just lay it all out there,” she says. “We think that’s going to really help build more and more trust with consumers.”

• This article was amended 11 June. A previous version incorrectly stated that SC Johnson uses 1,300 out of 3,500 “legally available” fragrance ingredients. In fact, it uses 1,300 out of 3,500 fragrance ingredients that meet the International Fragrance Association’s standards.