Home for the Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender has always had that clean-cut look about him. Could be the youthful eyes and soft smile, or the still-full head of hair, or the professorial sport-coat-with-no-tie look that he prefers.

Or maybe it's just that he really is clean. After all, he has been under your kitchen sink and has stared down the depths of your toilet. He has studied surfactants and analyzed alkalis. He has changed diapers — in a big way. He may know more about household cleaning products, sustainable practices and progressive business ideas than any person alive. And, now in his third career as an author, lecturer, consultant and gadfly, he'd like to help you clean up your act, too.

Born in New York, Hollender attended Hampshire College and spent the early years of his career in the publishing and education fields. In 1988, he acquired a small green products mail order catalog called Renew America. Before long, he changed the name to Seventh Generation (an ancient Iroquois document, the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, declared that "in our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations"); converted the company from a cataloger into a wholesaler; took it public; and eventually built it into one of the most respected brands in America because of its transparency, responsibility, issue advocacy and commitment to sustainability (Seventh Gen itself occupies a Gold LEED-certified building in Burlington, VT). Seventh Generation makes everything from all-natural glass cleaner, to non-toxic laundry detergents with no optical brighteners, to trash bags and toilet paper made of recycled materials, to diapers that are free of latex, petroleum-based lotions and chlorine processing. And, as noted in the April 2011 Fresh Off the Press, they now also offer some of these products in an amazing bottle that is made of 100% recycled paper and cardboard. Many of these products are sold at Sprouts.

But for Hollender, all of that is yesterday's newsprint. Since leaving Seventh Generation late in 2010, he has embarked on an ambitious and highly productive new career, taking his prodigious knowledge and passion directly to consumers and to other businesses through his new consulting firm, Jeffrey Hollender Partners (as well as serving as the Chair of the Greenpeace US Board and as the Chair of the American Sustainable Business Council).

"I find that the biggest motivator to people as they get older is the responsibility they have to their kids and grandkids to leave the world in a better place," he told us. (For his three kids, in Chelsea, VT, that should be no problem. Their home is partially powered by that wind turbine, and their refrigerator is filled with mostly locally grown foods.)

Hollender is now reaching a much wider audience. He is a frequent lecturer and author of six books — the most recent of which, Planet Home, co-authored with Alexandra Zissu, is an upbeat-but-urgent room-by-room how-to guide for consumers interested in finding ways to live a more natural and non-toxic home life. In it, he offers up a wealth of practical information while presenting a unique perspective on how to see the interconnectedness of the world and the upstream and downstream consequences of each decision we make as consumers and homeowners. You can pick up a copy of Planet Home through Jeffrey's website, www.jeffreyhollender.com, which also happens to contain an outstanding blog.

Here is a sampling of some of the incredibly useful tips and advice you will find inside Planet Home reprinted here courtesy of Jeffrey Hollender:

10 Tips to Green Up Your Home

Cleaning product formulas are considered trade secrets, so manufacturers aren't required to (and seldom do) disclose their ingredients. In point of fact, many of them contain unsafe chemicals that have been linked to everything from asthma to cancer to ozone depletion. For example, synthetic fragrances that are couched in lovely marketing terms like "fresh scent" may contain hormone-disrupting phthalates, and can release harmful Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into your home environment. You can avoid these problems by buying natural cleaning products, or even by making your own:
- AIR FRESHENER: Put baking soda or vinegar with lemon slices in dishes around your home to absorb odors. Small bowls of coffee (whole bean or ground) or dried herbs will also do the trick. Household plants are also good at cleaning the air and reduce smelly (and potentially harmful) VOCs in your home.
- ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER. Put 2 teaspoons washing soda, 2 teaspoons borax, 1/2 teaspoon plant-based liquid soap, and 1 cup water in a spray bottle and shake well. Lemon juice or essential oils can also be added for fragrance. Washing soda may leave a harmless white residue on a surface if not wiped well.
- DRAIN CLEANER. For light cleaning, mix 1/2 cup table salt with 4 liters boiling water and pour down the drain. For stronger cleaning, pour 1/2 cup baking soda down the drain, followed by a 1/2 cup white vinegar to break down fatty acids. Wait 15 minutes, then pour boiling water down drain to clear residue.
Nonstick cookware should be avoided. The chemical used in the manufacture of the polymer that makes nonstick pans so slick — perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA — is being phased out; the perfluorochemical has been linked to cancer (the EPA calls it "likely to be carcinogenic to humans"), and it is so widespread that it has been found in the blood of 98 percent of Americans. To make matters worse, it might be the most persistent man-made chemical ever created: it doesn't biodegrade at all, which means it's just accumulating in increased amounts in the environment and in humans as it is manufactured or when it breaks down during use. In 2005, DuPont, one of the largest manufacturers of PFOA, settled with the EPA for $16.5 million for allegedly withholding information about the chemical's health risks. The EPA has also asked DuPont and seven other chemical companies to eliminate PFOA and similar chemicals from their products and plant emissions by 2015. Brand names that include PFOA include Teflon and Silverstone. The jury is still out on the safety of the chemicals being used to replace PFOA in various nonstick applications.... Scratched pans are unsafe to use and must be thrown away (they cannot be recycled). And nonstick cookware must never be heated on high or placed in the broiler.
Never microwave food in plastic of any kind, including plastic wraps and so-called microwave-safe containers. Transfer microwaveable foods to a safe glass or ceramic alternative before heating. The term "microwave-safe" only means the plastic in question won't become visibly damaged when heated, not that it won't leach. (Plastic wrap often contains polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. PVC products use hazardous compounds called phthalates to maintain their pliability. Phthalates have been found to easily leach out of PVC products. PVC can also release a material called di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) when in contact with fatty foods.)
Choose wood cutting boards over plastic ones.... Wood has natural antibacterial properties, and unlike with plastic, small cuts in its surface often close up, leaving nowhere for bacteria to live. Look for wood that is bare; you don't want sealants coming off on the food you're chopping. Care for your wood cutting boards well: wash them by hand (never soak them or put them in the dishwasher) and dry thoroughly. Rubbing coarse salt into a wood board can smooth out some of the cracks made by knives and draw out impurities. If a board starts to look too dry, treat it with food-grade tung or linseed oil. Most oil sold for this purpose is petroleum-derived mineral, so be sure to read the ingredient list.
Running a dishwasher filled with scraped — not rinsed — dishes using eco-friendly detergent free of chlorine and phosphates is preferable to washing by hand, especially if the machine has a good Energy Star rating and you don't use the energy-draining heated dry option. Run the dishwasher only when it is totally full (but be sure you're not blocking the water or aeration methods with any dishes, or they won't get clean). Face everything inward.
The most important surface to clean in any kitchen is actually your own two hands.... Bacteria and other microorganisms exist throughout our environment — in our homes and out in the world. It's all part of a bigger cycle of life that can't be, and shouldn't be, disrupted by disinfecting.... Washing your hands with warm soap and water will keep [microorganisms] from being transferred from your kitchen to your food and into your system. [But] all hand soap is not created equal. Avoid soaps that contain unnecessary and dangerous antibacterial chemicals, including triclosan, which, according to the American Medical Association, may encourage bacterial resistance to antibiotics.... Triclosan is known to produce toxic chlorinated substances that aren't biodegradable. In fact, studies, including one by a U.S. FDA advisory committee, have found that household use of antibacterial hand soaps provides no benefits over plain soap and water. None.
Conventional chickens in the United States tend to be disinfected in chlorine baths, a procedure that has long been banned by the European Union. It's also banned by USDA organic rules.... If you've sought out and spent good money on a chlorine-free chicken, be careful where you put it. Cutting it on a counter or board that has been cleaned with chlorine or any other disinfectants and retains its residue undermines your choice. Think it through. If you clean with conventional cleaners in a kitchen, you're applying them to your meals, adding toxic chemicals you were trying to avoid by buying organic or low-sprayed local food.
If you dry-clean your clothes, traces of dry-cleaning fluid are coming out of your closet — not something you want to be breathing all night long. The EPA says perchloroethylene (aka perc), the most common dry-cleaning chemical, causes cancer in lab animals. Dry-cleaning waste is in our air and water. Very few items labeled "dry-clean only" truly need it, but for the items that do, locate a professional cleaner that utilizes less toxic methods like CO₂ or wet-cleaning (check out nodryclean.com). ... If there are no alternative cleaners near you, always remove clothes cleaned with perc from their plastic bags and let them air outside for several hours so the chemicals can evaporate a bit before getting stored in your closet.
Make sure your old electronic equipment doesn't wind up in a landfill. Older CRT TVs contain lead and other toxic chemicals — not something we need more of in our landfills. The Electronics TakeBack Coalition is a good resource for locating responsible recyclers in each state.... TakeBack maintains a list of TV companies with take-back programs. Earth911.com also helps connect conscious consumers to electronics recyclers.
Believe it or not, about 90 percent of the energy used in doing laundry — including the costs associated with making detergents and the energy used by the machines — is making water hot. It's hard to conjure up the image of a coal-fired power plant and the pollution it creates — the greenhouse gases and the mercury residue in our waterways and seafood — when you reach your finger toward the hot water button on your washer. But try to. We may be home alone washing doormats, jeans, and rags, but our actions always affect the world beyond our walls. Washing in cold will reduce that impact and minimize your dirty laundry's footprint.

And, one last tip from Hollender for Sprouts customers.

"Because many of you live in a part of the country where there are warmer temperatures and greater aridity, I'd encourage you to dry your laundry outside in the fresh air." As he notes in Planet Home, "There's nothing eco-friendly about a machine made of metal, rubber belts and plastic parts that uses energy to heat and evaporate water."