Jeffrey Hollender

President and Chief Inspired Protagonist, Seventh Generation

Authentically Green

With the world rapidly going green, Jeffrey Hollender's eco-friendly Seventh Generation, Inc. is producing and distributing more environmentally safe household products than ever before in its 20-year history. As the company's president and chief inspired protagonist, he says the amount of green merchandise on the market has soared in the last few years, but the competition has only boosted sales at Seventh Generation. Last year the company's revenues increased 45% and this year revenues are up 60%; American consumers recently ranked it the "greenest" household cleaning brand. Increased awareness about environmental crises and the availability of a broad array of green products has enhanced Seventh Generation's standing among its competitors simply because the company went green long before it was fashionable.

"We have a unique place of authenticity and credibility," says Hollender. "All of this competition and advertising money is benefiting us. The most important thing to do competitively is to keep doing what we're doing. The most dangerous thing would be to change."

Keeping things authentic is a challenge that Hollender faces head-on. In 1993 he took Seventh Generation public, but in 1999 he went private again after discovering that ownership structure matters a great deal for a company that takes its social responsibilities seriously. Being a small, privately-owned company, which he characterizes as "teeny in a global context," allows him to prioritize in a way that suits his vision of Seventh Generation as more than just a line of household products.

"We need to think about economic and moral imperatives," he says. "I spend half my time trying to influence other companies that business should play an even broader role in society."

Hollender is at the forefront of a movement that seeks to capitalize on the tension between the role of the corporation as the world's most powerful and innovative social institution and the growing severity of social and environmental problems that plague billions of people. He now dedicates himself to reshaping the fundamental model of American business. "While we encourage people to make their products greener, we must also hold them accountable to do it authentically," he says. "The challenges we are facing in the world today will not be met by changing the packaging."

Admittedly, the socially responsible component of business comes easier for Seventh Generation because it is the hallmark of the company's environmentally sensitive product line. But Hollender initially chose to develop the products he did because of his own desire to create a company that would benefit society and generate profits. "The philosophy was to integrate in everything we do," he explains.

Recently, Hollender was invited to participate in one of management innovation guru Gary Hamel's exclusive gatherings of world-renowned thinkers and business leaders. At the table were the CEOs of Whole Foods, Google and W.L. Gore, among others. "I was more than a little nervous when, on the first day, I was asked to tell the group a little bit about Seventh Generation and why it was so unique and innovative from a management perspective," explains Hollender. "Compared to Whole Foods ($6 billion in sales) and W.L.Gore ($2.5 billion), we are tiny."

A systems thinker who believes that even the smallest ripple can affect great change, Hollender shared some of Seventh Generation's global imperatives that morning. "I talked about things like my belief that businesses should engage in the personal development of everyone who works for them. And [make] a commitment to ensuring that natural resources are used and renewed at a rate that is always below their rate of depletion. I think it's fair to say that no one in the room had ever heard of a company whose purpose included creating a world of equity and justice, health and wellbeing," he said.

With his own house in order, Hollender has set his sights on the global business landscape. He compares the growth of today's global markets to the expansion of manufacturing capacity in the early 19th century, when people were suddenly able to purchase more products based on their desires rather than their needs. "This causes us to consume huge amounts of resources that don't create a lot of value," Hollender says. "We are not fulfilled, and we've created environmental chaos. But I'm an endless optimist. And I know that profit-making and environmentalism can go hand-in-hand."