A Lot of Perspective

Now, I’m a little undecided as to how I feel about Seventh Generation and the popularity they’ve gained in recent years.  On one (very large) hand, I greatly appreciate that they are offering much more natural and environmentally friendly products that are readily available at your local Target, Jewel, Safeway, <insert regional grocery store here>.    They have a great corporate responsibility policy, including donating 10% of their profits to “to non-profit community, environmental, health, and responsible business organizations working for positive change.”  They strongly oppose testing on animals and offer some great educational material on their website.

Of course, the fact that it’s gained so much hype and popularity and is carried so much by so many big box stores keeps me a little leery.  Also, some of their products contain the highly controversial 1,4 dioxane, a probable human carcinogen that’s been all over the news recently. 

However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have incredbily useful information on their website.  Just today, I came across their Seventh Generation Index.  They lay out a number of interesting and useful facts about the state of the environment, alternative energy, green jobs and pollution, mostly from the US but globally as well.  Some very interesting tidbits to highlight:

Number of people expected to be employed in the solar energy sector alone by 2030: 6.3 million

Number of minutes of sunlight hitting Earth needed to meet global energy needs for a year: 1

Size of the patch of desert needed to meet all U.S. energy using concentrated solar power: 92 x 92 miles

Percent of global energy needs that could be met by wind power: 3,500

Cost to build wind power generators to meet 20% of U.S. electricity needs: $1.2 trillion

Amount of money spent on foreign oil in the U.S. every year: $700 billion

Percent of total U.S. energy use dedicated to producing food: 19%

Percent of total U.S. energy use that would be dedicated to producing food if everyone was vegetarian: 13%  

Check out the rest of the list here and make sure to spread the word.  It’s statistics like these that really put things into perspective for the average person and helps encourage them to make better choices for themselves and the planet.