Here are 10 CSR reports that impressed our writers in industries ranging from automotive to fashion to technology to sports apparel to cosmetics.

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Several years after Lee Scott’s departure as CEO, something has gone seriously wrong with Walmart’s sustainability progress.

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Chris Miller is Director of Corporate Consciousness for Seventh Generation. He works across the company to develop and implement strategies for sustainability. His responsibility includes mission-related stakeholder engagement, development of a robust companywide climate and energy plan and developing strategic values-led partnerships with NGOs.

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New Media and CSR: Communicating Corporate Good, moderated by TriplePundit’s very own Nick Aster, identified four major emerging trends in Corporate Social Responsibility in a free-wheeling discussion between Chris Miller, Christine Diamente, Mitch Baranowski, and Dale Hart. What were they? Read on.

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Jeffrey Hollender’s talk on Tuesday at NYU wasn’t probably listed on Time Out NY, but nevertheless it was one of the best shows the city provided that night. Hollender, an almost impossible combination of a CEO and a rebel, is never boring no matter how many times you get to hear him. Combining gloomy economic and social observations with funny anecdotes, he managed to charm the dozens of students that packed the room, sending them home afterwards with his innovative ideas (some would say ‘European’) on how to get the U.S. economy back on the track towards a sustainable future.

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All unhappy people are alike in that they negatively affect a business’ financial bottom line. Several years ago, Gallup estimated that Americans who are actively disengaged with their work – almost 30% of all employees – are responsible for a staggering $300 billion in lost productivity annually. This is in addition to what they receive [...]

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Jeffrey Hollender co-founded Seventh Generation Inc., the country’s largest distributor of non-toxic, all natural cleaning, paper and personal care products. Seventh Generation pioneered a new category of cleaning products, growing exponentially as it’s primary retail partner, Whole Foods, ascended. He served as CEO and Executive Chair until his abrupt departure last year. Hollender is also [...]

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At Sustainable Brands ’11, there’s much talk about, well, brands. But what powers those brands? Employees. People. In the pursuit of innovation, competitive edge and profits, many companies lose sight of the real force behind their brands. Similarly, companies striving for sustainability often focus on their environmental impacts to the neglect of the social side. [...]

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Jeffrey Hollender took the stage at Sustainable Brands yesterday and he didn’t need a powepoint for the message he was going to deliver. It was time to come clean about his departure from Seventh Generation and he was not going to mince words: “I was fired 6 months ago after 23 years and I was [...]

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I had an intriguing collision with reality this week. Ecologic, a company whose early test products I covered in early 2010, sent me a bottle of Seventh Generation laundry detergent, so I could see first hand what new style, resource efficient, recyclable, compostable, biodegradable packaging looks like in person. I have to say, I was [...]

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This article has been updated since it was first published. The following is part of the Crowds of Ratings series by our friends at CSRHub (a 3p sponsor) – offering free sustainability and corporate social responsibility ratings on over 5,000 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies. 3p readers get 40% off CSRHub’s professional subscriptions [...]

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Last year I posted the question, “Who are our top sustainable CEOs?” Your responses were very enlightening. Last year’s top vote getters included Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia, George Siemon of Organic Valley Company, Mick Bemans of Ecover and Jeffery Hollender (formerly) of Seventh Generation. In total, voters nominated almost 40 different CEOs covering a range [...]

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I recently had the opportunity to interview Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation for our ongoing small business sustainability strategy series on GreenBusinessOwner.com. Mr. Hollender’s trademark transparency and candid style offer a viewpoint on social entrepreneurship, the trials and tribulations of founding a mission-driven company (including ceding control to a Board of [...]

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Seventh Generation’s new sustainability report, Corporate Responsibility 2.0 was released last week.  Those familiar with last year’s award-winning report (named by Ceres as best SME report), will be pleasantly surprised by the changes this year.  While the report still holds true to Seventh Generation’s reputation for a high level of transparency and great design, this [...]

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No doubt some were surprised by recent announcements that Seventh Generation would be teaming up with Walmart in a partnership that would make Seventh Generation’s products available in some 1,500 Walmart stores. Surely this news disappointed some, angered others and inspired a few. For me, this partnership provides more evidence that Jeff Hollender is brilliant. [...]

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It says something about our current state of affairs in business and government when someone in a position of responsibility makes news for telling the truth, but there you have it. But then Seventh Generation’s Jeffrey Hollender doesn’t just tell ordinary truths either. Jeffrey, the company’s Chief Inspired Protagonist (they don’t have a CEO) is the kind of guy who makes you realize that we will never run out of frontier, because as long as there are pioneers like him, there will always be new frontiers.

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By Vale Jokisch Over the past two years we have heard countless mentions of the enormous bailouts for Wall Street and the concurrent ongoing woes on Main Street.  Just last week President Obama sent a proposal to Congress to create a $30 billion fund for small and medium banks in order to encourage lending to [...]

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Corporate Social Responsibly is more than just about selling sustainable products, issuing annual reports, and reducing carbon and water footprints: it’s also about how businesses treat employees and the corporate culture that’s promoted within company walls. Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation’s Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Inspired Protagonist, spoke about this holistic approach to CSR during his visit to the Presidio Graduate School earlier today.

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Yesterday, Jen Boynton published a review of Jeffrey Hollender and Bill Breen’s new book, The Responsibility Revolution. Be sure to check out the review and grab a copy when you can–it really is as good as Jen says. The only thing more captivating than reading Hollender’s latest writing is talking to him personally, which I [...]

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In my line of work, I read a lot of books about sustainable business. First there was the required reading for my MBA in Sustainable Management, then there are the books that publishers send, which I lap up like a kid in a candy store. I love this topic and I’m a bookworm anyway. Which [...]

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The Economist’s Corporate Citizenship Conference “Doing Well by Doing Good” wrapped up earlier last week and provided a variety of perspectives on what exactly needs to be done, how and by whom to restore our economy, corporate ethics and public trust. It was no surprise that the bleak economic situation was a recurring theme echoed [...]

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How much of a role should business play in tackling global questions such as climate change, unemployment, restoring trust in the aftermath of the financial crisis and distributing international aid?  What is the nature and extent of the private sector’s responsibility in resolving these issues? At what point should corporations step alongside government and help [...]

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Don’t you love it when you are thinking about your best friend, and when the phone rings, she’s on the other line? That’s what happened to me this morning with our friends over at Environmental Leader. Just as I was sitting down to write about the program we’ve been putting together for a free and [...]

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Ed Note: Voting is now closed. We’ll tally things up and have a wrap up post for you mid-day Monday. Earlier this month, we ran a post in which we asked you to nominate the CEOs who are doing the most to advance principals of sustainability in their companies. And nominate you did–we received more [...]

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Some skeptics question the value of corporate social responsibility reports.  They point to the resources expended on producing these documents and demand  “Who reads them, anyway?”  While that may be a valid question, I think a more informative question is “What value does producing a CSR report offer to the company doing the reporting?” Based [...]

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Take a look at the baby in this video. He’s innocent, adorable, and completely irresistible . . . At least that’s how Seventh Generation hopes the U.S. Congress sees it. Seventh Generation, the nation’s leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally-safe household and personal care products, has joined forces with eco-advocate Erin Brockovich and Safer Chemicals, [...]

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To the question “is corporate social responsibility dead?” the answer, from Seventh Generation’s perspective, appears to be “no; it just needs to be reborn.” Seventh Generation’s 2008 CSR report, which it released this week, offers a fresh look at just what “corporate social responsibility” is. In the words of the company’s chairman Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh [...]

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By Makenna Goodman, Chelsea Green Publishing Vermont has a long history of birthing sustainable businesses. Perhaps it’s because of values seeping in from rural farms who still operate outside of the corporate world, or perhaps it’s because of local laws like the one forbidding billboards on highways (which undoubtedly stimulates smaller-scale marketing.) Whatever it may [...]

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In July of this year, Seventh Generation released its 2007 Corporate Consciousness Report, a wrap up of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Named the Number One Best Company on Earth by the Better World Shopping Guide, the Corporate Consciousness Report discloses where they are on the “journey of sustainability” and how their employees and [...]

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