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If you are a fan of Seventh Generation products you might find the interview interesting with President and “Chief Inspired Protagonist” of Seventh Generation Jeffrey Hollender on the Huffington Post.
On every package of Seventh Generation’s, non-toxic household products, you can find their corporate motto:
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions upon the next seven generations.”
Which is incidentally from Great Law of the Iroquois Federation…that’s neither here nor there…just interesting.
Seventh Generation, if you are not familiar with them, is a line of products that are staples at natural grocery stores like Whole Foods, as well as at smaller health oriented stores. Their offerings of paper products, dish washing and laundry soaps, etc. is ever expanding in scope and in distribution – in response to the growing green movement.
One of the things that attracted me to Seventh Generation products is their policy of full disclosure. As Hollender says in his interview,
“It’s wrong to use ingredients that haven’t been tested by a third party. The vast major of ingredients in household products have never been independently tested. Most chemicals we use today have never even been tested to see if they’re carcinogenic. Americans assume things are safe unless otherwise. Seventh Generation is the exact opposite. We only use chemicals that have been tested and proven safe.”
Not only are many of the ingredients we commonly find in household products unhealthy, they often are also environmentally unfriendly. Chlorine, a common whitening agent, emits toxics fumes in the paper manufacturing process. (Seventh Generation’s products are chlorine-free). Phosphates used in major detergent brands to make them “foamier” do little to enhance cleaning power but do harm our waters by encouraging unhealthy algae bloom. (Seventh Generation’s products are phosphate-free).
There is quite a bit more information on toxins in cleaning products on Seventh Generation’s web site, which is unfortunately poorly written and relatively difficult to navigate through. A more consumer-friendly website would, I’m sure, aid them in their mission to be:
“… as much about inspiring people to make possibilities as we are about toilet paper.”
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