Can a Clean House Create Jobs?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/blog/wages-housecleaning-cooperatives?source=email&utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Can+a+Clean+House+Create+Jobs%3F&utm_content=sdawes%40cox.net&utm_campaign=7Gen+-+February+11%2C+2009+-+Non-Nation

By Chris - February 3, 2009

At Seventh Generation, we try to infuse sustainability across our business. Whether it's through incentives we provide our employees to reduce their carbon footprints, our LEED certified office space, or work we do throughout our supply chain, we strive every day to consider the results of our every action on the next seven generations.

We have also committed ourselves to help create a world of enlightened equity and justice. You might ask, how does an environmentally friendly consumer products company do that? Well, frankly, we continually challenge ourselves with that question and the truth is it's not always easy to find a good answer. With the global economy spinning out of control and an unending stream of corporate layoffs, bailouts, and downsizing, we think it's more important than ever that we seek to answer that question.

I am pleased to tell you about an exciting new partnership between Seventh Generation and Women's Action to Gain Economic Security, or WAGES. WAGES is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco's Bay Area that for the last 14 years has been helping Latina women start and run their own cooperatively-owned green residential cleaning businesses. The coops serve clients in the Bay area with eco-friendly home cleaning services that help to protect the health of their clients' homes and families The coops also protect the health of the women who use these cleaning products 8 hours a day.

WAGES and the coops they have incubated over the last 14 years have helped raise dozens and dozens of women and their families from poverty. It is an incredibly powerful story, one that involves not simply offering a handout, but instead extending a hand up. The coop members earn a sustainable living while enjoying benefits like healthcare and paid vacations, benefits that are virtually non-existent in their industry. They are trained in the skills necessary to run and own their own businesses, skills that motivate and empower.

That's why we are so happy to be partnered with WAGES to launch a brand new residential cleaning cooperative in San Francisco. The new business, Home Green Home, opens for business on February 16th and we couldn't be prouder to be a part of it. Home Green Home will use all of the Seventh Generation products you have come to know and love to help keep your home sparkling clean while helping to protect both the health of your home and the health of our planet. It's a business that you can not only feel good about supporting, it's one we hope you will be proud to be a part of.

We expect this to be the first step in a long and growing partnership with WAGES, and we would like to encourage you to join us in making it happen. If you live in San Francisco, consider becoming a Home Green Home client. We think it is the best way to keep your home sparkling clean, free up more of your time to spend with family and friends, and support healthy and dignified jobs. If you don't live in the Bay Area, but know someone that does, help us spread the word. The more clients Home Green Home serves, the bigger the business grows, the more lives it will change.