IT’S NOT EASY BEING BLUE

“It’s been nice to have a direct relationship with consumers, to test the messaging and see what matters most to them.” –SARAH PAIJI YOO

JEFFREY HOLLENDER is the dean of green. Just as natural foods were inching into the mainstream, Seventh Generation—which he co-founded with Alan Newman in 1988—spread virtuous consumption to the household cleaning aisle. In time, the company developed plant-based, ethically made versions of virtually every cleaning and paper product found in a kitchen or bathroom.

Seventh Generation had $150 million in sales by 2010, the year Hollender was fired, after he’d stepped down as CEO, amid widespread gnashing of teeth in the environmental community. Let’s just say doing well and doing good—Hollender’s priority—don’t always co-exist easily. Seventh Generation was sold to Unilever in 2016, and Hollender was later welcomed