Tracing Overall Environmental Impact to Stay Aligned with Long-term Climate Objectives

Seventh Generation has officially published results from its 2023 Impact Report, which is designed to showcase the company’s progress against a commitment to decrease its climate impacts.

Going by the available details, this report digs into where the brand actually stands in the context of its Science Based Climate Target, while simultaneously delivering an insight into how well Seventh Generation’s visions reflects in its products portfolio, the business decisions it makes, as well as the company’s work in advocacy and philanthropy.

“Seventh Generation has a longstanding commitment to transparency – from our first impact report in 2004 to the launch of our industry-first reporting framework and methodology, Climate Fingerprints,” said Ashley Orgain, Chief Impact Officer at Seventh Generation. “We are certainly proud of the progress we’ve made, as evidenced in the report, but we remain even more dedicated to naming and tackling the challenges that are still ahead of us in meeting our 2030 goals, including plastic reduction.”

Talk about the given lowdown on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the way it reveals reduction in Seventh Generation’s carbon footprint. You see, the company made early progress on its 2030 Science Based Climate Target (2012 baseline), reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 100%. This it did through partnership with electric and gas utilities.

Furthermore, the company’s footprint was found to be entirely made up with Scope 3 emissions, but having said so, consumer use also represented 93% of those emissions. Beyond that, Seventh Generation’s absolute emissions shrank by 18% from 2022, and for the first time since Seventh Generation set its Science Based Climate Target, they were markedly lower than the 2012 baseline by 4%.

Next up, the report in question informs us on how Seventh Generation is decarbonizing its finances. For better understanding, in 2022, the company became the first one to publicly disclose its financed emissions. More on the same would reveal that, even though its banking relationships fall under the domain of its parent company, Seventh Generation has actively worked alongside Unilever, in the past one year, to facilitate an undergoing audit of its own financed emissions, including commissioning a report and joint review.

Another major highlight to emerge from Seventh Generation’s report relates to the advocacy efforts it has made towards making polluters pay. Leveraging partnerships with state of Vermont, and across Lake Champlain in New York State, Seventh Generation has supported the passage of policy designed to hold the biggest greenhouse gas polluters in each state accountable, thus also aiding the funds that are needed to achieve optimal climate resilience and mitigation. Apart from that, Seventh Generation has supported the passage of Climate Change Superfund Act Vermont, with New York State following suit.

As for the foreseeable future, Seventh Generation will continue to empower its Climate Fingerprints initiatives, such as financed emissions and investments that have the potential to make industry-level impact. Not just that, the company is also planning to use the five-year mandatory review of its Science Based Climate Target to help the organization continue to meet its full climate action potential.

“Looking at our 2023 progress, we are proud of the recent the strides made across not only our footprint, but through the work we’ve done as advocates, as well, driving critical policy change,” said Kate Ogden, Head of Advocacy and Movement Building at Seventh Generation. “That said, we know our work and that of the industry at large is far from over to meet the urgency of the climate crisis we face. We will continue to hold ourselves and our peers accountable.”

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