Corporate Responsibility
Corporate Responsibility and the Emerging Future
Seventh Generation is a business that operates according to a new and different set of principles… We work to create a corporate culture in which people are energized and fulfilled as members of an intentional community.
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Today, we live in a world of increasingly widespread social disruption caused by imbalances in the natural and societal systems human beings depend upon for survival. Our civilization is overly reliant on non-renewable sources of energy. Our economic system spends more on weapons than schools. Our oceans are being scoured clean of life. Chemicals in our food, air, water, and soils air are disrupting our health. The list seems nearly endless and it leads to perhaps the most pernicious dilemma of all: problem fatigue and the widespread cynicism and powerlessness it generates.
In response to these and other challenges, new ways of looking at purpose-based business-ing is slowly and yet, progressively happening. Seventh Generation is a business that operates according to a new and different set of principles, values that in many ways are marked departure from those long considered “traditional.” We offer employees avenues not to express their greed and ambition but their idealism, passion, and commitment to causes larger than themselves. We promote this approach to doing business not only among our employees, but to each of our stakeholders from manufacturing partners to our consumers.
As part of this standard, we consider our company as a place for people to seek not only material growth, but spiritual growth as well. We work to create a corporate culture in which people are not drained and alienated by the drudgery of work but energized and fulfilled as members of an intentional community. Every day and in every way, we seek a place beyond profits and strive to be a satisfying company to work for and do business with.
A major part of our effort is in developing a concrete vision of what it means to be a responsible business, a sustainable business and a good corporate citizen. In this we are hardly alone. Seventh Generation is committed to the challenge of evolving a new corporate paradigm for the role that commerce can and should play in a world remade.
As this new paradigm emerges, we believe it does more than protect the environment and nurture human beings. We think it proves to be the best way to help develop new markets, position more responsible and environmental products in these markets, build responsible brands, attract a committed-to-change workforce, forge strong and lasting partnerships and develop trust in our media-audience. In short, we believe this business-form represents the very future of business itself.
In order for business to initiate a compassionate, values-based response to the challenges facing our civilization and forge a leading role as a force of positive change, accountability and transparency, the foundations of responsibility must first be embraced.
We can each of us make a difference. Whether as employees, managers, consumers, activists, regulators, parents, teachers, or investors the future is ours to make or to break. Our only true peril on this road to change is that we lose sight of our own power and responsibility. In the unfolding drama called tomorrow, every individual has a vital part to play. May we each play our own parts to the very best of our abilities and together create a bright new world in which future generations are free to concern themselves with other things.
For more information about Seventh Generation, visit our About section.
2006 Corporate Responsibility Report
2006 was a year to celebrate! We moved into our beautiful new office building in February and marked the grand opening of our new space with our vendors and the external community. We’re also well on the way to obtaining LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) “Gold” certification for our new facility.
In producing this report, we want to highlight our 2006 accomplishments and inform you about the progress we’ve achieved toward the goals we set in our 2005 report. The table below summarizes our corporate responsibility performance in 2006. It was a good year for us in many categories. From a financial standpoint, we grew significantly, increasing revenues by 28%. Environmentally, we advanced many of our objectives for replacing petroleum-based ingredients in our cleaning products. From a social perspective, our employees continue to be engaged in efforts to integrate our values into the fabric of our business and our supply chain.
