CHAPTER 9The Good Steward

Seventh Generation is among the most environmentally responsible companies in the world today. But leaders of the household and personal care products company will be the first to tell you they aren’t perfect.

They did just that in their 2008 Corporate Consciousness Report. “We are still working to replace the remaining synthetic ingredients in our products and to eliminate the contaminant 1,4-dioxane from our cleaning products,” cofounder Jeffrey Hollender wrote.1

A likely carcinogen, 1,4-dioxane can form in cleaning products when modifying natural oils with the petrochemical ethylene oxide and sulfur trioxide.2 Both Seventh Generation’s fabric softener and its dish soap liquid tested positive for 1,4-dioxane, the company ...

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