Super Eco

Photo credit: seventh generation

Jeffrey Hollender is President and "Chief Inspired Protagonist" of Seventh Generation, distributor of non-toxic and all-natural cleaning and personal care products. Hollender grew up in New York City, the son of an advertising executive, and attended the very progressive boarding school, the Putney School in Vermont. Next he attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. After graduation, he moved to Toronto and began working toward social change by co-founding the Skills Exchange of Toronto, a non-profit adult education cooperative.

Upon returning to New York, Hollender continued working in adult education, founding the Network for Learning, which was similar to the Toronto non-profit, but included an audio tape business that published the courses. After selling this business to Time Warner and serving as president of the new subsidiary, Warner Audio Publishing, Hollender purchased an equity stake in Renew America, mail-order catalog company which sold energy conservation products, and began expanding the catalog quickly, eventually adding the non-toxic cleaning, paper and personal care products that make up the Seventh Generation product line today.

Today Hollender is considered an expert on sustainability and green business practices, and sits on several boards as diverse as the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and Greenpeace US. His blog spotlights sustainable business practices. He has received a number of awards, including:

• Fast Company Fast 50 - Jeffrey Hollender was selected as "one of the doers and the dreamers, the truth tellers and the trendsetters."
• Best Bosses Award 2006 - Winning Workplaces selected Jeffrey Hollender, President of Seventh Generation, as one of the year's Best Bosses.
• Fast Company Social Capitalist Award 2007
• The Microsoft Excellence in Environmental Sustainability Award 2008 - Seventh Generation was recognized as a customer who is "using their business management system in an innovative way to track their initiatives around becoming more environmental sustainable."

Notable Eco Activity

Jeffrey Hollender is famous for trailblazing the way for non-toxic, all-natural cleaning and personal care products, and his company is by far the leading U.S. producer of non-toxic disposable diapers. He is a popular and admired speaker on green and sustainable business practices and he is considered a leader in green thinking. From 1992 to 1996, Hollender served as president of the Rainforest Foundation USA, an organization created to protect the rainforest and the human rights of its peoples.

• Jeffrey Hollender Details

  • Birth Date

    1954

  • Born In

    United States

  • Home Page

    Unavailable

  • Lives In

    United States

  • Organizations

    Seventh Generation

  • Occupation

    Chief Inspired Protagonist