Jeffrey Hollender (born 1954) is an American businessperson, entrepreneur, author, and activist. He was well known for his roles as CEO, co-founder, and later Chief Inspired Protagonist and Executive Chairperson of Seventh Generation Inc., the country's largest distributor of non-toxic, all-natural cleaning, paper and personal care products. Hollender is also the co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council and a member of the board of directors of Greenpeace USA, Verite, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and the Environmental Health Fund. He speaks frequently at national venues and has advised companies on sustainability. He has published six books, including Naturally Clean, The Responsibility Revolution and Planet Home.
Hollender was born in 1954 in New York City to Alfred and Lucile Hollender. He attended Riverdale middle school, The Putney School, and Hampshire College. He lives in Vermont with his wife, Sheila, and their three children (Meika, Alex, and Chiara [1]).
Hollender is a nationally recognized expert on green and sustainable business practices and he works as an unpaid advisor to many large companies interested in sustainability. Under Hollender, Seventh Generation is a sustainably run business with sales growth of more than 40% a year, according to Fortune writer Marc Gunther.[2] Hollender sits on the board of Greenpeace US[3] and sponsored for several years an annual program with the organization that trained college students in how to become activists. He speaks frequently to business and civic groups around the country. He is a member and former Director of the Social Venture Network, a group of socially conscious business executives. He co-founded and was a Director of Community Capital Bank, a New York financial institution that invests in affordable housing and community development.
On June 1, 2009 Jeffrey stepped down from his role as CEO and became Executive Chairperson of Seventh Generation. Jeffrey retained his title as "Chief Inspired Protagonist". Hollender's relationship with Seventh Generation was terminated in October, 2010. Hollender and Seventh Generation have not spoken publicly about the separation, but Marc Gunther sheds some light on the events in his blog. According to an email sent by Hollender to Gunther, "On Monday, October 25th, the Seventh Generation Board announced to its shareholders and employees that they have "decided to end the company's employment relationship" with me ". . .without cause". Seventh Generation's letter to shareholders and employees stated "In the life of every company, there comes a time when the most difficult of decisions must be made....recent events have forced us to choose between divergent paths."
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Jeffrey Hollender has published a variety of books that focus on topics ranging from transparency and corporate social responsibility, to ways through which the public can lead more sustainable lifestyles.
In 1985, Hollender’s first book How to make the World a Better Place: 116 Ways You Can Make a Difference was published by W.W. Norton & Company, and detailed ways in which everyday people can help solve local and global issues. Then in 2006, Hollender followed-up his first book with two more texts on corporate social responsibility; Naturally Clean, and In Our Every Deliberation.
In 2010, Hollender published two additional books, first The Responsibility Revolution, and second Planet Home, co-written by Alexandra Zissu.
Born in New York City to Alfred and Lucile Hollender in 1954, Jeffrey Hollender attended the Riverdale Country Day School from 1965-1972 and went on to graduate from the Putney School in Putney, Vermont in 1973. When asked about the role of the Putney School in Hollender’s life and career, he has stated that: “the most important thing [he] got from Putney was that it was more holistic—less segmented and compartmentalized—in the way that it approached education.” Following the conclusion of high school, Hollender went on to attend Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Beginning in 1979, Hollender became involved in the education and publishing entertainment industry as president of Warner Audio Publishing, a division of Warner Communications –a position he held through 1987. Following his tenure at Warner Audio Publishing, Hollender acquired a small mail order catalogue centered on energy conservation products known as Renew America, a business that eventually blossomed into Seventh Generation in 1988. For more than twenty years, Hollender acted as President, CEO and “Chief Inspired Protagonist” of the Vermont-based company, helping to develop Seventh Generation into a leading authority on making a positive difference in the health of the planet through simple, everyday choices. In 2004, Seventh Generation was named the seventh most responsible brand in America based upon a study performed by Alloy Media & Marketing and as of 2010, the company Hollender co-founded claimed to have an annual revenue of $150 million.
Hollender and his wife, Sheila, have three children, Meika, Alexander, and Chiara, and divide their time between Charlotte, Vermont, and New York City.
After co-founding Seventh Generation in the late-1980s, Hollender went on to co-found the American Sustainable Business Council, a “growing coalition of business networks committed to public policies that support a vibrant, just, and sustainable economy.” Today, more than 100,000 businesses and 150,000 entrepreneurs have joined the council and Hollender remains involved with the ASBC on the Board of Directors.
Hollender has received multiple awards, including: