2008 was a tumultuous year to be in business. Against a backdrop of widespread economic turmoil, our nation elected a new president whose campaign themes of change and community service resonated with many. In our little corner of Vermont, our sales grew an astonishing 51 percent. At Seventh Generation, we took this as validation that trying to do the right thing is good for business. Last year also saw increasing numbers of consumers choosing natural products over conventional ones, making a positive difference for their health and for the environment and giving us reason to cheer not only our own success but that of our green competitors.

Our company approached last year with a sense of increased responsibility that we use the opportunities provided by our record growth to make changes that will allow us to move more directly and rapidly toward our vision of a just and sustainable future. Our success allowed us to recruit individuals with the depth of experience necessary to guide us in the next phase of our evolution. This helped us take charge of our destiny as a company. We took increased control over the sourcing of our ingredients; our newly expanded lab increased our in-house research capabilities; and we put concerted effort into defining our partner relationships with our suppliers and retailers by a commitment to shared purpose.

2008 Challenges: We are proud of the many 2008 accomplishments you will read about in the pages that follow. But our commitment to both our Global Imperatives and to transparency demand that we address the challenges we experienced as a company in the year that just passed. Foremost among these was a disappointment that, despite technical progress, challenges remain before we reach our commitment to remove synthetic ingredients from all of our products. Some consumers buying our cleaning products on the internet experienced leakage problems. We must also acknowledge the toll our rapid growth took on our work/home balance, causing stress for some within our community.

Livia Frossard And also great to see that they are really opened to integrate stakeholders not only in the beginning of the reporting process, but also in the publication, showing that it's a true ongoing process. And the best practices book is a great idea. Two-thumbs up! 18 August 2009

Kevin Long Glad to see a leader of Jeffrey's stature willing to be critical of an industry that needs to evolve dramatically to address the challenge's we face today. 12 August 2009