Seventh Generation’s laundry detergent is made with 97% plant-based ingredients. Their paper products use 100% recycled paper. Their 4X Concentrated formula uses less packaging and is more efficient to ship. These aren’t environmental claims: they’re product specifications. Seventh Generation built a company on the premise that product performance and environmental responsibility don’t have to trade off.
Founded in 1988 and named after the Iroquois principle of considering how decisions affect the next seven generations, the company has been integrating sustainability into its product line and business operations for over three decades.
The Seven Generations Philosophy in Practice
The “Seven Generations” principle isn’t just a brand name for Seventh Generation: it’s the operational framework for their product decisions. Before a product is formulated, the question is whether its ingredients and production methods leave the next generation better off, not just whether the product performs well today.
This creates specific standards: plant-based and renewable ingredients wherever possible, recycled materials for paper products, minimal plastic packaging, and a take-back program that allows customers to return plastic packaging for recycling rather than sending it to landfill.
The company’s 2020 Corporate Consciousness report (using Climate Fingerprints methodology that accounts for all aspects of business affecting environmental outcomes) is one of the more comprehensive corporate sustainability disclosures in the household products category. The environmental justice dimension of the report, which prioritizes communities most affected by the climate crisis, reflects a values orientation that goes beyond product-level sustainability.
Specific Targets, Not Just Aspirations
Seventh Generation has set concrete targets that distinguish it from companies with purely aspirational sustainability positioning: cutting total plastic by 50% by 2025, shifting all packaging toward recyclable or biodegradable materials, and reaching 100% sustainability, bio-based or recycled materials across all ingredients.
Encouraging consumers to switch from hot to cold water washing is one of the company’s behavioral change initiatives: their detergents are formulated for cold water effectiveness, which reduces energy consumption in the consumer use phase, which is where most of the lifecycle impact actually occurs for cleaning products. This is an honest and sophisticated sustainability framing: the company takes responsibility for the use-phase impact of their product, not just the manufacturing impact.
Their partnership with Natural Capital Partners on reforestation in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley offsets carbon emissions while supporting biodiversity: a dual-purpose conservation investment rather than a generic offset purchase.
The most credible sustainable product companies are the ones who can answer the question “what percentage of your environmental impact are you actually addressing?” with a specific number. Seventh Generation’s Climate Fingerprints methodology is designed to produce exactly that answer.
The Acquisition That Tested the Model
Seventh Generation was acquired by Unilever in 2016. For mission-driven companies, acquisition by a large corporation is often where sustainability commitments get diluted. Seventh Generation has maintained its B Corp certification post-acquisition and continued to publish transparent sustainability reporting, evidence that the values weren’t purely the product of the company’s independence.
The joint effort with NY Renews (an organization dedicated to climate change solutions) represents Seventh Generation taking its advocacy role seriously beyond just product choices. Advocating for policy change that affects the industry broadly is the company behaving as a platform for change rather than just a product line.
Shop now for your eco-friendly alternatives for home care and baby care at their website or follow them at Instagram.
P.S. Seventh Generation’s concentrated product formats are worth noting as a packaging reduction model applicable to any retailer carrying household cleaners: the same active ingredient volume in a smaller container is a straightforward sustainability improvement that also reduces shipping cost.