10.03.2006 - 02:05pm ET

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BURLINGTON, Vt.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2006--Don't look for displays of eco-friendly household cleaners at the Seventh Generation booth at the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore, Maryland this week. In a dramatic departure from standard trade show fare, the nation's leading brand of eco-friendly household and personal care products is using their booth space to walk the talk. Nestled among the rows of typical trade show booths at the Baltimore Convention Center, visitors to Booth #837 will discover a virtual forest.

Designed as a fund raising and educational tool for reforestation initiatives, the project is initiated by cell phone interactions and invites participants to create a virtual tree. By dialing a particular number, trade show attendees will be given a "seed" to grow using the keypads of their cell phones. With each punch of the keypad, audiences have the ability to grow their seeds, choose the type of trees they want to plant, and change their texture and color. With the help of Canadian-based organization, the SEED collective and in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources and Tree-mendous Maryland, the virtual trees they'll create inside the Seventh Generation exhibit will translate to real trees planted around Maryland in the spring of 2007.

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago," said Terry Galloway, Certified Arborist and Director of Tree-mendous Maryland. "The next best time is at the Seventh Generation exhibit at the Convention Center this week. Trees and forests are the most beneficial land use for protecting and restoring the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland's greatest natural resource and number one environmental priority."

The folks at Seventh Generation agree. "There's no question in our minds that global warming is the most important issue of our time," said Seventh Generation President and Chief Inspired Protagonist, Jeffrey Hollender. "The heat is on and we humans are responsible. So we've asked ourselves "what are we going to do about it?" This initiative is a jumping-off point--a truly local response to a global crisis that we hope will help people bring seventh generation thinking into their everyday behavior."

Inspired? Absolutely. But it's business as usual for the Burlington, Vermont-based company that has spent the past 18 years at the forefront of a cultural change in consumer behavior and business ethics. One of the country's first self-declared "socially responsible" companies, Seventh Generation is a business that operates according to a new and different set of principles and values that in many ways are a marked departure from those long considered "traditional." Its business practice is focused on offering people avenues to express their idealism, passion, and commitment to causes larger than themselves at every point along its supply chain -- from suppliers and partners to shareholders, customers and its own staff. The company derives its name 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.

"It's a huge responsibility, we know," added Hollender. "Planning for next week can be tough enough, and now we're asking people to think about the year 2166. We're saying "You can make a difference. You can plant a tree here. More trees translates to less Carbon Dioxide. Most importantly, though, one generation plants them and another gets the shade." To learn more about Seventh Generation's collaboration with the SEED Collective, visit www.seventhgeneration.com/trees

TREE FACTS

In just one year, one acre of trees:

-- absorbs 2.6 tons of CO2, or the equivalent of driving a car 26,000 miles

-- produces enough oxygen for 18 people to breathe

Trees planted in urban regions:

-- cool cities by breaking up "heat island"

-- help offset runoff and reduce flooding

-- reduce noise pollution

-- can help reduce energy usage by air conditioners

-- give you and your loved ones a retreat from UV

-- serve as inspiration and spiritual centering.

For more tree facts, visit http://www.friendsoftrees.org/tree_resources/facts.php.

About Seventh Generation

Seventh Generation is committed to becoming the world's most trusted brand of authentic, safe, and environmentally responsible products for a healthy home. Seventh Generation markets and distributes through natural food stores, supermarkets, on-line stores like Amazon.com and mail order catalogs in the U.S. and Canada. For more information and to find store locations, visit www.seventhgeneration.com

About SEED

SEED uses wireless activism as a reforestation-funding tool and a way in which individuals can learn about the urban forest and its benefits. This reforestation tool, initiated by cell phone interactions, invites participants to create a virtual tree. SEED explores the convergence of rich media and wireless technology in the creation of a collaborative and evolving work of art. Through sound and imagery users create and populate a forest together. To learn more about SEED, visit www.seedcollective.ca

About Tree-mendous Maryland

TREE-MENDOUS MARYLAND is a Forestry Program of the Department of Natural Resource that makes it possible for Marylanders to plant, care for and maintain trees to help restore and protect the natural environment, in particular, our greatest natural resource, the Chesapeake Bay. To learn more about Tree-mendous Maryland, visit http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/forests/treemendous

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