We have a vision of a just and sustainable planet, one that our children’s children will thank us for handing down to them. But we can’t get there alone. Only through our collective contributions can we harness the power needed to shift closer to the fulfillment of that vision.

That’s why we believe dialogue and education are so critical. While we partner on sustainability initiatives with our suppliers and our retailers, we know that the greatest ability to create change rests in the aggregate decisions of the populace at large. Arguably the largest impacts to the environment and those that can be most readily addressed occur at the consumer level. Take our products. Ninety percent of the energy expended when washing clothes is used for heating water. Most households that switch to cold-water washing will save over 1,000 pounds of CO2 each year. That’s why we’ve formulated our laundry detergents to perform effectively in cold water and initiated a “Get out of Hot Water” campaign in 2008. Go to go/hotwater to take the cold-water pledge and calculate your family’s environmental and monetary savings.

That’s just one of our efforts. Education and engagement are at the heart of all of our programs. We hope that consumers will turn to us for information on a broad range of health and environmental issues. To help reach the next generation of leaders, we developed the first in what will be a series of lesson plans. Our 2008 science lesson plan allows middle-schoolers to investigate conventional and natural cleaning products as well as to create their own healthy and effective cleaners using baking soda and vinegar. go/lesson

To broaden the reach of our message and facilitate dialogue, we upgraded our website in March 2008, doubling our traffic and bringing 10,000 new members to our 7Gen Nation each month (90,000 members at the end of 2008). 170,000 people subscribe to our newsletter, a combination of our 7Gen Blog go/blog and Jeffrey Hollender’s blog on corporate responsibility, The Inspired Protagonist go/inspired. Readers can learn about our products and about almost any green topic by asking our own “Scienceman” questions or by asking the community. Our Forum has over 1000 topics, 95% of them consumer-generated. Our “how-to” postings and green guides are particularly popular. Most rewarding for us has been that the level of communication we’re seeing is deeper and more meaningful. In 2009, we will continue to explore cutting-edge technologies to increase the interactive opportunities for consumers to identify with our brand.

Expectant and New Parents

Expecting a baby is a time of awakening consciousness about environmental and health hazards. For many new parents, it may be the first time they have ever bought natural products or scrutinized the label on a cleaning product. They may start using our chlorine-free diapers and wipes on their baby’s tender skin and, as they learn more about healthy living, may appreciate the value of our other products as well. In their quest to learn more, we hope new moms will see us as a trusted source of information on keeping their children safe and providing them with a healthy home. For the past two years we hosted our Wee Generation microsite (since removed) to provide an inviting portal for parents interested in learning more. This evolved into a more comprehensive effort to facilitate dialogue with new moms through the opportunities provided by our own website and social media sites and by engaging with the many pioneering mommy bloggers sharing parenting tips and experiences.

Our Wee Generation effort supported two 2008 initiatives:

• Our team of experts designed an eco-friendly diaper bag made partly from recycled plastic bottles. Profits support Healthy Child Healthy World. Learn more at go/diaperbag
• We held a Green Baby Nursery Makeover Sweepstakes. The winning family won a $5000 “greenovation” for their baby nursery. Our list of green baby nursery tips also inspired others to create their own healthy baby rooms. Learn more at go/5000

Consumer Insight Team

We’ve all been there. You pay for an item only to find out once you’re home that it doesn’t work properly or you can’t understand the directions. Or you may have a specific health question about a product. You want to call the company but will you reach someone who can help you? Does the company even care about your experience?

At Seventh Generation, you may end up speaking with one of the six members of our Consumer Insight Team. “The team does a phenomenal job taking care of people,” notes team leader Sue Holden. “Our consumers are thinking more holistically and asking deeper questions. We try to honor their concerns and bring them to the rest of the company. People are very appreciative of how transparent and thorough we are. Sometimes our answers may disappoint a particular consumer but we’re not trying to sell the callers on our products. We’re trying to give them information that will help them make a good decision. If the consumer still isn’t satisfied with our product in the end, we hope they will find another green product that works for them.”

Answering calls and emails may be one of the more traditional ways we connect with consumers but our approach is anything but. The name “Consumer Insight” is intentional. We have a unique approach that pairs each team member with the manager for a particular product category so they can bring the consumer’s voice into the decision-making process at each step of the value chain. “Our product manager asked me to join a meeting with our diaper manufacturer,” says consumer specialist Stacie Okosky. “They were talking about materials and energy use and I brought up completely different questions — like how will the diapers fit the baby? I think bringing consumer needs into the conversation early on helps the process.”

In addition to responding to thousands of phone calls, emails, and web questions, the Consumer Insight Team has written over 150 answers to “Frequently Asked Questions” which are stored in the FAQ corner of our website: go/faq. These questions address health and environmental questions as well as provide general information on our labels or where to buy our products. Consumers who want an immediate answer can often find their question addressed in this comprehensive list of topics.

Serving Our Consumers

While we continue to deepen our understanding of our direct impact on consumers today, we also have our eyes on the future. Our Advanced Innovation team spent time over the first half of 2008 gleaning insights from consumers on a broad spectrum of topics relating to the health of their homes and families. Through ethnographic research with households in different areas of the country, we gained insight into underlying unmet needs, aspirations and behaviors. This information, combined with other significant research projects, assures us that our future strategy for innovation is grounded in the ability to build deeper relationships with those who support our business and mission. Most importantly, we’ve built a foundation for a deeply consumer-centered approach to our future as a company.

Deb Berman I totally agree, Jessica, the mainstream need to see the incredible innovation that Seventh Generation is doing ! 18 August 2009

Jessica Smith You should integrate your consumer facing social media marketing with your corporate responsibility marketing. 14 August 2009