Students of the one-year accelerated Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) at ̽̽’s Grossman School of Business had the pleasure of connecting with Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation, as part of a week-long orientation earlier in the semester.
An extensive green resume
Jeffrey Hollender’s resume is as extensive as it is green--a perfect match to be a guest speaker for the Sustainable Innovation MBA program. He co-founded in 1988, with a goal of being an environmentally friendly cleaning brand. As the CEO, he governed the company with values. Not only did Seventh Generation become an industry leader with products made from recycled paper and household cleaners made from plant basedplant-based ingredients, but it also published corporate responsibility reports and stuck by its mission. He later co-founded and was the CEO of Sustain, a company that used fair-trade latex for their products, as well as the American Sustainable Business Network, a group of business leaders dedicated to both people and planet.
What is a sustainable, responsible business?
Throughout his discussion, Hollender focused on the solutions, not the problems. Often, discussions about the environment and the climate crisis revolve around what cannot be done, or undone. Students in the SI-MBA program are here to acknowledge the problem and take steps to tackle it in the future. He also talked about incentives, making sustainability a business case, and holistic accounting of both carbon and money. He presented concrete actions that businesses and business leaders can take to go that much-needed step further past becoming net zero to net positive.
Throughout his visit, Hollender continued to emphasize the positive. From thinking about impact in terms of a handprint instead of a footprint, or, quite literally, net positive business, striving for a positive impact both on the environment and society, Hollender talked about what can be done. He championed the SI-MBA students to be a positive force for change wherever their future endeavors take them.
For people and planet
Growing up we’re all taught to pick up after ourselves and to leave things better than we found them. So why is that not applied to our planet as well? A principle that used to apply to sticky tables in Kindergarten classrooms has now made its way to the C-suite.
This is part of the premise Hollender shared in his “12 Ways to Make Responsibility Responsible Business More Responsible” with the SI-MBA students. This list included concrete changes—from “implementing full-cost accounting” and reevaluating goals and standards on a continuous basis such as “differentiating between ‘good’ and ‘less bad,’” to holistically evaluating the business’s culture and making sure the business “stand[s] for something.”
Grateful for insights
Hollender generously shared his teachings as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, along with decades of experience, to mentor and inspire the next generation of business leaders that recently began their journey into the year-long intensive Sustainable Innovation MBA program. Thank you, Jeffrey Hollender, for taking the time to share your wisdom and insight, and provide practical, real-world applications to the SI-MBA students.
About the Author
Brooke Weatherup is a current SI-MBA student from San Diego, California. She graduated from University of Vermont in 2024 with a major in Business Administration, concentrating in Sustainability and Marketing, along with a minor in Writing. Outside the classroom, Brooke is a part of SIMPACT as well as competing with ̽̽’s club roller hockey team.