September 1st, 2009 was an illuminating day for consumers in the European Union. At midnight, a ban on traditional incandescent bulbs shut out the lights on that outdated technology and began saving consumers five billion euros a year in energy costs.

Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation’s Chief Inspired Protagonist, co-founder, and Executive Chairperson, is a prolific author and speaker on the subject of sustainability. His blog, www.inspiredprotagonist.com is closely followed by the business community. He is also the author of several books, including What Matters Most and Naturally Clean.

With thinning polar ice caps, extreme weather events, and other indications of a climate crisis becoming difficult to ignore, increasing numbers of Americans are working hard to reduce their carbon footprint, or the total amount of carbon dioxide that they create. For most that means dialing back electricity use, consuming less hot water, adjusting thermostats, and reducing driving. Actions like these are invaluable, but many people are surprised to learn that making simple changes in their diet can have an equally large impact.

Halloween has come a long way from the days when it honored the harvest and marked the start of the ancient Celtic new year. Once a sacred time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was believed to thin and allow communication with the spirit realm, today's celebrations revel in macabre mythologies and seek the thrill of chills and things that go bump in the night.

In our ongoing quest to make our products the most sustainable and natural cleaning products available, we are continually working up and down our supply chain to ensure that the ingredients in every bottle of Seventh Generation are not just less bad for people and the planet, but are truly good.

Nature may only have four seasons, but the human calendar includes at least one more: Back to school season, and we are about to enter it.

With household budgets under pressure and locally-grown foods all the rage, the backyard vegetable garden is making a comeback. Increasing numbers of Americans are discovering their green thumbs along with the bigger savings and better flavors of meals grown a few steps from their kitchens. But eating backyard bounty is the easy part. It's the growing that can get a little tricky. As any experienced gardener will tell you, success is rooted in your soil.

As thrilled as we are to introduce our new dish liquid formula, we are equally excited to introduce the packaging that it comes in. To protect this new formula on its way to shelves and homes, we sourced a new 25oz dish bottle that contains 90% post consumer recycled plastic, up from 25% in our current bottles. In fact, depending on whom you ask around here, getting the bottle right took as much patience and perseverance as developing the new formula. New Formula

They are known as the three Rs, the holy trinity of sustainability that asks us to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. I would now like to suggest a fourth R: Rot. It may sounds strange, but rot is a crucial part of maintaining a low-impact home. Rot means composting, the art of creating nutrient-rich fertilizer from kitchen scraps, yard trimmings, and other organic wastes. Composting takes these materials out of our trash cans and returns them to the Earth where they're needed.