Seventh Generation: Activating Climate Innovations by “Cashing Out of Carbon”



Even though the world is adding clean, renewables at record levels, global energy demand is growing so fast that fossil fuels are filling the gaps. Leading consumer brands, including Patagonia and Seventh Generation continue to push the boundaries of corporate climate leadership to re-examine their own climate impacts and take a stand for climate justice and a fossil-free future .

Since its founding over thirty years ago, Seventh Generation has been on an innovation journey to reduce the environmental impacts of its products and business operations and to ‘leverage the power of business for good’.

Assessing New Corporate Climate Territory

In 2021, Ashley Orgain, Seventh Generation’s Chief Impact Officer, considered the trajectory of corporate climate action and the root causes of the climate crisis, including the outsized role of fossil fuels in driving greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). She asked trusted partners, including Pure Strategies, if there was more Seventh Generation could do to get to ‘real zero’ or zero greenhouse gas emissions produced (i.e., no offsets or capture). What rose to the top was Seventh Generation aligning with the emerging work from the advocacy community, “cashing out of carbon” to:

• 1) Examine how the money companies spend on auxiliary business services, such as banking, retirement, marketing, and insurance, is ultimately channeled to support fossil fuel use and expansion
• 2) Work to change the business practices of the partners to align with the necessary transition to clean energy

For example, when Seventh Generation sends its money to a banking partner, that money could then be invested to support the fossil fuel industry, or it could be used to support clean energy expansion. Seventh Generation then wanted to know where it had these types of impacts, if the company could measure them, and how to take action to change them to align with their climate values.

Adding a New Lens for Evaluating Climate Impacts

While Seventh Generation had a view of its scope 1, 2, and 3 climate impacts, this work was aimed beyond those scopes, at the indirect support for fossil fuels. To help Seventh Generation start this work, Pure Strategies developed an organizing framework for assessing this indirect fossil fuel funding across different categories of corporate spending, including marketing and creative services, banking, investments, insurance, advocacy, and philanthropy. Pure Strategies then used qualitative and quantitative frameworks from Drawdown, Ceres, Clean Creatives, and Topo Finance to estimate this indirect impact. Seventh Generation published these findings in its 2022 annual Corporate Consciousness Report, Climate Fingerprints. It included an open call to action to take similar steps to better understand the company’s indirect financial support for fossil fuels and identify appropriate actions.

Actioning Climate Fingerprints

Seventh Generation’s initial actions from this work were focused on two workstreams: emissions generated from banking services and marketing and creative services. This was done in partnership with Clean Creatives and Topo Finance, with support from Pure Strategies.

Key to this work was beginning with engaging internal teams – finance and marketing – who traditionally do not play a direct role in climate strategy. This required education, clear asks of the teams, and actionable workplans. This also included have a baseline on service providers and their support for the fossil industry and if/how they are committed to climate action to then engage with service providers and other companies on the topic of decarbonization and incorporating operational changes to align with Seventh Generation’s climate vision.

“Pure Strategies served as a trusted thought partner and implementation advisor to Seventh Generation as we explored new territory to align our business operations with our climate values through decarbonizing corporate spending,” notes Ashley Orgain, Seventh Generation’s Chief Impact Officer. “This important work has paved the way for other sustainability leaders to collaborate with their financial and creative service providers and make the meaningful shift away from fossil fuels to improve the impact of their financed emissions.”