Seventh Generation Hosts Summit on Creating a Game Plan for the Transition to a Sustainable U.S. Economy

BURLINGTON, VT--(Marketwire - July 6, 2009) - Seventh Generation, the nation's leading provider of recycled and environmentally safe household products, will host a meeting of some of the country's top sustainability experts in Burlington, Vermont, July 7-9. The landmark three-day summit, Creating a Game Plan for the Transition to a Sustainable U.S. Economy, will produce a detailed road map to move the U.S. economy to one that is ecologically sustainable, socially fair, and economically efficient. The event is being organized in cooperation with the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics.

"From poverty and hunger to extinctions and the climate crisis, the challenges we're facing today are unprecedented," said Seventh Generation Executive Chairperson and summit co-leader Jeffrey Hollender. "We know what the problems are. We know how to solve them. All that's left is the detailed plan that gets us from here to there. That's the missing piece of the puzzle, and that's what this summit is going to provide."

To further that end, the first day of the summit will be held in Burlington's Main Street Landing Film House at 60 Lake Street on Tuesday, July 7th from 9:00am to 5:30pm and will be open to the public. This unique opening session, which will include time for audience feedback and discussion, will feature a round-robin exchange in which voices and viewpoints from a wide variety of perspectives come together to begin to forge shared solutions. This opening day is free and open to the public.

The discussion will focus on how to create a society that emphasizes quality of life rather than quantity of consumption; includes all external costs in the prices of its products and services; measures economic activity and social progress in a holistic way; offers full and fulfilling employment; provides a more equitable distribution of wealth and increased investments in social capital; rapidly reduces its greenhouse gas emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change; and conserves and enhances all forms of Earth's "natural capital." Summit participants will air their thoughts about the objectives and steps they believe are most crucial to the realization of these overarching goals.

During the following two days, the participants will meet privately at Seventh Generation's Burlington, Vermont headquarters to further develop the specific strategies needed to achieve the transition to a sustainable U.S. economy. The result will be a concrete action plan that provides a broad outline and some of the details of the steps needed.

"Business as usual is not only unsustainable due to climate disruption and other environmental and social impacts, it is also undesirable because it is degrading quality of life for the vast majority of people," said Gund Institute Director and summit co-leader Robert Costanza. "The current economic crisis is a window of opportunity to shift to a more sustainable and desirable path. The summit intends to use this historic opportunity to chart a detailed course for that transition."

When completed, the Game Plan will be published in Solutions, a new journal that focuses on finding real solutions to society's pressing problems and creating a sustainable and desirable future (www.thesolutionsjournal.org). The Plan will also be distributed throughout the world via a number of other channels.

Participants in Creating a Game Plan for the Transition to a Sustainable U.S. Economy include:

Gar Alperovitz, University of Maryland

Jim Hartzfeld, Interface Carpets

Bill Becker, Presidential Climate Action Project

Bob Corell, Heinz Center

Robert Costanza, University of Vermont

Thomas Dietz, Michigan State University

Lawrence Forcier, University of Vermont

Richard Heinberg, Institute for Global Communications

Elliot Hoffman, CEO, Just Desserts, now New Voice of Business

Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation

Jon Isham, Middlebury College

Wes Jackson, The Land Institute

Hunter Lovins, Natural Capital Solutions

Frances Moore-Lappé, Small Planet Institute

David Orr, Oberlin College

Will Raap, Gardener's Supply

Larry Susskind, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University

About Seventh Generation

Seventh Generation is committed to being the most trusted brand of household and personal-care products for your living home. Our products are healthy and safe for the air, the surfaces, the fabrics, the pets, and the people within your home -- and for the community and environment outside of it. Seventh Generation also offers products for baby that are safe for your children and the planet.

For information on Seventh Generation cleaning, paper, baby and feminine personal care products, to find store locations, and explore the company's website visit www.seventhgeneration.com. To read more about Seventh Generation's corporate responsibility, visit the Corporate Consciousness Report at: www.seventhgeneration.com/corporate-responsibility/2007.

About the Gund Institute

The Gund Institute aims to shift the world's economies away from their present emphasis on infinite economic growth and toward a focus on sustainable human wellbeing. To forge fresh and visionary approaches to the economic challenges and opportunities that await us in the 21st century. To blur traditional academic boundaries and bring together experts, teachers, students, and stakeholders from all disciplines in order to pioneer vital new developmental tools and ideas. To guide the way to true global economic sustainability through teaching, research, design, and the practical application of those economic solutions that will generate natural capital even as they create human profit.

For more information about the Gund Institute visit: http://www.uvm.edu/giee

Contact Information: Media Contact: Brandi Thomas Seventh Generation 802-658-3773 x760 bst@seventhgeneration.com www.seventhgeneration.com