This summer has been a tough one for me. Not only have I been pulled in a dozen different directions with all the kids summer activities, but I’ve had a genuine case of the blogger blues. I’ve just felt overwhelmed and, conversely, apathetic about blogging.
But I haven’t wanted to quit-rather just to take a break.
And I can think of no better reason to get my bloggy groove back on than the Walmart/Seventh Generation Sustainability Challenge!
A little background. Walmart has historically not been known for their sustainability-and that is putting it kindly. Honestly they used to really, really rot. So much so that the co-founder of Seventh Generation Jeff Hollander had said in the past “that hell would freeze over before Seventh Generation would ever do business with Wal-Mart”
But Walmart has made great strides and is actually becoming one of the leaders in sustainability innovations & implementation. As a matter of fact-when Fast Company did a “Sustainability Faceoff” between Target & Walmart last April. . . Walmart Won.
On the opposite end of the spectrum–Seventh Generation has been dedicated to helping protect individual households with their naturally safe and effective household products for over 2o years (long before “green” and “sustainable” were big business). Their name is derived from the Great Law of the Iroquois that states, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
So Walmart & Seventh Generation have been on opposite sides of the fence for a long, long time. And yet, back in 2008 Jeff Hollander wrote a post entitled “Strange Bedfellows” explaining why Seventh Generation decided to allow Walmart’s Marketside Stores to stock their products–and finally this month Seventh Generation is being stocked in Walmarts nationwide
I think it really says something about Walmart’s sustainability initiatives that a company that once was such a fierce opponent is now a partner.
So where does Frugal Upstate fall in all this?
To celebrate the new partnership, Walmart and Seventh Generation decided to offer five of the Walmart Moms a four week “Sustainability Challenge”. We were each shipped a generous supply of Seventh Generation cleaning products (all of which are non toxic and packaged in bottles that are 90% post consumer recycled plastic) and challenged to make at least one change a week to live more sustainably for a period of four weeks.
Now I think that I already do a pretty good job at being sustainable at the Frugal Upstate household. After all, as I wrote last week in my guest post on the Seventh Generation blog-being frugal quite naturally leads to being green. But I’m sure I can find ways to improve!
Tune in on Monday as I reveal what I chose for my first week’s challenge.
Lora says
I’m looking forward to this series. 🙂
Amyrlin says
Jenn,
I am so excited about the upcoming info, I love seventh generation products, especially the laundry soap next to the homeade version (of Course!) I think it has been good for you to take a break from blogging because you need to recoup, it lets you start fresh. Have a great weekend Jenn, and I will stay tuned!
Heather:)