The Seventh Habits of a Highly Effective Person

We're taking three approaches. First, we're expanding our distribution into other channels such as mass merchants. Target, for example, now sells our products in 50 of their stores, and consumers see significantly lower prices since Target operates on smaller profit margins. Second, we're evaluating selling to the institutional market (schools, hospitals, cleaning services, businesses, etc.) to provide safer products to the people who have the highest exposure levels, like custodial staffs, etc. Third, we're working on product innovations that will concentrate our products, thereby reducing their cost per use.

Quite honestly, our packaging is lousy, at least from an environmental standpoint. More environmentally responsible packaging is one of our top R&D initiatives over the next 18 months.

Yes! We just moved our entire office to a new building that's going to get Gold LEED certification. In addition to the physical structure itself, our systems furnishings (things like desk dividers, etc.) are Greenguard-certified. Our furniture was made from FSC-certified wood. We used wheatboard, an emissions-free material made from recycled wheat chaff, for our paneling, shelving, and doors. The office's sound insulation is formaldehyde-free, and its ceiling tiles have 70 percent recycled content. The paint we used was VOC-free. Our carpets have 25 percent recycled content and a special PVC-free, low-emission 40 percent recycled backing that will be recycled itself when its useful life ends. Local materials, like the granite for our countertops, were used wherever possible. All water fixtures are low-flow. Our lighting is all energy-efficient and controlled by sensors for still more energy savings. We also designed our new office for maximum daylighting, which means that many times we don't even turn the lights on. And all of the energy that we do consume is offset through Native Energy. To help people get to our new office, we provide a $5,000 incentive to any employee who wants to purchase a hybrid car.

The first time that Bill Clinton and Al Gore ran for president we endorsed them on the cover of our then mail-order catalog. We pissed off so many people it cost us $250,000 in lost sales. While I am often progressive in my politics, I almost always support Democratic candidates.

Not enough! But it's an area we're working on. Right now, all our office energy use is offset by Native Energy (see above). We try to keep that energy use to an absolute minimum by using daylighting, sensor technology that turns lights and equipment off when not in use, and other means like simple awareness. Our products themselves require less energy to make in many instances because using recycled raw materials is less energy-intensive than starting from scratch.

You ask a big question because you have to make the business case for environmental responsibility to your company's management team. In other words, you have to demonstrate that not having an environmental policy is costing your company money and, conversely, that having such a policy would save it money and thereby increase profits. The stronger a policy is, the more money it in effect makes for a business because at the most fundamental level pollution and other forms of environmental destruction are about waste, and waste simply represents money going out the door. There are a lot of very convincing resources available to help you make this case. You can find my preferred choices at the website for my book What Matters Most. The resources section of the site lists my favorite books, news sources, and organizations that can help you with advice, ideas, etc. There's also an updated appendix [PDF] of sorts that I created last year, which summarizes some of the latest evidence clearly showing that environmental responsibility boosts the bottom line.

Our business has grown 30 to 40 percent per year for the past five years! That's pretty amazing and very hopeful. More and more people are becoming aware of the need for change. That awareness comes from education, which is something Seventh Generation does as much as possible via our free email newsletter, our website, our blog, our packaging, product displays, etc. We're always looking for opportunities to share what we know and will continue to do so because consumer education will always be the key to transforming awareness and behavior, and getting people to switch to safer, more sustainable products.

Seventh Generation products neither contain nor are made with any kind of chlorine in any form. Sodium hypochlorite is a form of chlorine bleach made by combining elemental chlorine with sodium hydroxide (soda lye). It's not quite as acutely toxic as elemental chlorine, but it's far from safe.

I have been a longtime reader of Rachel's Environment & Health News, a fascinating newsletter published weekly by the Environmental Research Foundation. That is where I was introduced to the concept, which has shaped our thinking about product development for the last eight years or so.

Unfortunately the best solutions are often the hardest to make happen. This one will take a high level of policy and political engagement, something many of us need to focus more attention on. I do think this is possible, but it's going to take a lot of work, and I have no idea how to speed up the pathway to making this happen. However, I am committed to finding a solution. That's not a great answer, I know. This is something I'm still trying to figure out. Sorry I can't be more helpful here at this point!

Right now, we have two regional distribution centers -- one in Sacramento, Calif., and one in Buffalo, N.Y. We will add more as quickly as we can, but that depends on how quickly we grow. I'd say a third center in the middle of the country is likely sometime in the next two years.

Send emails to companies and politicians that do things you don't like. Only buy from companies that are aligned with your values. Be kind. Inspire others. Create hope. Vote. Smile.

OK, Karen, I understand your concern, but I have a hard time getting around the fact that the nation's largest environmental organizations are so single-issue focused and are often totally unable to work together toward a common goal that transcends their own agendas. Did you happen to read "The Death of Environmentalism" by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus? So let's say that while some environmentalists deconstruct the world and figure out the one problem they're concerned about without seeing that everything is related, there are some who understand a systems approach. My mistake here was trying to define a complex word in a way that only managed to capture a caricature of concern to me. No offense intended.

One: To think in terms of the whole system and not just its component parts (check out the work of Peter Senge and the Society for Organizational Learning). Two: To believe, as Gandhi did, that we ourselves must be the change we want to see in the world. Three: To understand that one person really does have the power to change the world.

Describe the world we want to create rather than what's wrong with the world we live in. Striving for less of what's bad inspires no one. But aiming for more of what we believe in gives us all something to work toward. Inspiration is almost a magical potion that creates hope and possibility. Sharing stories of our successes, remembering those who succeeded against all odds, and staying connected to our own inner passion gives us the hope and inspiration we so desperately need.