March 10, 2020

The Safer Choice Label

Safer Choice Partners of the Year 2021 - Adult and Child folding/playing in laundry

Seventh Generation is proud partner of the Safer Choice program and was awarded the 2021 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award!

You may have seen the Safer Choice label on many of our laundry, dish, and other products. But what is Safer Choice? And how does it fit into our ongoing commitment to building a healthier future for the next seven generations to come?

We’re so glad you asked.

The EPA offers the Safer Choice label to products that meet their strict standard and reformulate quality products that get the job done using only the safest chemical ingredients. We are proud to have so many EPA Safer Choice products, including liquid laundry detergent, dish liquid, laundry packs, household cleaners, and more.

When consumers see this label on our products, they can be confident that every ingredient inside has been carefully chosen by us and screened by the EPA for potential adverse human or environmental health effects. And further, you can feel good knowing that the product contains ingredients that pose the least concern among chemicals in their class. We believe you deserve dependable products that work like you need them to without bringing ingredients of concern into your home. For over three decades now, every action we take and product we make is connected to our mission to build a healthier future for the next seven generations. For us, Safer Choice Certification is far more than just a label on our products. It’s our promise that they’re made safer for your family.

Products with the Safer Choice label must meet the Safer Choice Standard and Criteria for Safer Chemical Ingredients, which define safer chemical alternatives transparently based on an array of health and environmental considerations and incorporate the technical tools of the EPA's New Chemicals Program and the U.N.'s Globally Harmonized System criteria.

We know that may sound a little technical, but the important thing to know is that the process the EPA uses to award the Safer Choice label is super rigorous and they don’t give it out lightly. That’s a good thing! Safer Choice is designed to inspire consumer confidence and to push companies to create healthier, safer products.

To date, Safer Choice has labeled over 2,000 products for a wide range of consumer and industrial uses. If you’re interested, you can find the complete product listing on the EPA Web site.

As for us, we’re beyond proud that the following Seventh Generation products are currently Safer Choice certified:

EPA/Safer Choice recognition does not constitute endorsement of this product. The Safer Choice label signifies that the product’s formula, as Seventh Generation, Inc has represented it to the EPA, contains ingredients with more positive human health and environmental characteristics than conventional products of the same type. EPA/Safer Choice relies solely on Seventh Generation, Inc, its integrity and good faith, for information on the product’s composition, ingredients and attributes. EPA/Safer Choice has not independently identified, that is, via chemical analysis, the ingredients in the product formula, nor evaluated any of Seventh Generation, Inc non-ingredient claims. EPA/Safer Choice provides its evaluation only as to the product’s human health and environmental characteristics, as specified in the Safer Choice Standard and based on currently available information and scientific understanding.

Seventh Generation is committed to changing the way that business is done in the home care industry, which is why we’re proud to have so many EPA Safer Choice Certified products among our offerings. But we’re not stopping there.

While we are the industry leader in our use of PCR (post-consumer recycled) material among our packaging, we know our journey towards a zero waste future goes beyond what's on the outside. By constantly innovating to use more renewable (and safer) ingredients in our product formulas, we hope we can help reduce carbon emissions, create a healthier climate future, and further drive us towards reaching our zero waste goals.  

We’re on a mission to create a healthier, more just, and more equitable world for this and future generations to come. And we’re just getting started.

References:

[1] - https://www.epa.gov/saferchoice/frequently-asked-questions-safer-choice