WPI Journal - The Magazine for WPI Alumni

WINTER 2015

The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)

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28 Winter 2015 W hen Martin Wolf '71 gets up on a soapbox, it's about much more than soap. Although he's on a quest for greener cleaners, his mission is much broader than the kitchen sink. His impact goes beyond designing earth- friendly products that are used in millions of households. His voice is heard in state houses around the country and in Washington, D.C., where he is a champion for environmental reg- ulation and corporate responsibility. For more than two decades, Wolf has been helping Seventh Generation fulfll its promise to "nurture nature," with household products free of "chemicals of concern." The brand name derives from an Iroquois law that calls on us to "consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." The company shuns toxicants and carcinogens, but embraces "hon- esty, responsibility, and radical transparency." What does that mean to Martin Wolf? not just that we, individually, are doing well," he states. Doing right by Mother Earth also means doing right by the community of employees at the Burlington, Vt., headquarters—and its in- gredient suppliers in all corners of the world. "I see the environment as a shared resource that needs to be protected, and not just as an in- put into an economic system," Wolf elaborates. While he's pleased with double-digit growth of Seventh Generation, he's also pleased to see more mainstream competitors, such as Clorox and Procter & Gamble, jumping on the green bandwagon. "We don't want to just be a success- ful company," he explains. "We certainly want that, but we also want to transform the way commerce is done, in order to create a more sus- tainable economy and a more sustainable world." A QUIET LIBERAL That worldview wasn't formed overnight. At WPI, in the turbulent '60s, Wolf describes him- self as a serious student and a loner who spent long nights in the chemistry lab fnishing assign- ments. (Those who cheated were done in half the time. "However, I have excellent, excellent laboratory skills," he says.) The Vietnam War was a turning point: his approval turned to opposi- tion as he learned that leaders could be fallible. To this day, he calls himself "a quiet liberal" who only occasionally joined demonstrations. Out in the world of analytical chemistry, with a bachelor's degree from WPI and a master's from Yeshiva University (bolstered by graduate work in electrical engineering, which enabled him to work on monitoring instrumentation), Wolf still believed that companies could be trusted to ensure the safety of the pesticides, industrial chemicals, and other chemicals he was tracking. Later, as co-owner of Cambridge Analytical Associates, a small consulting labora- tory, he got to see "ethics in action" frsthand. His frm worked on two pivotal environmental contamination cases of the 1980s—W. R. Grace, in Woburn, Mass., (the basis of the book and flm A Civil Action), and Love Canal. In the lat- ter, he was called on to validate analyses of soil and water samples and he testifed as an expert witness for the EPA. "That launched me into a more active stance on the environment—but I was still, for the most part, a defender of in- dustrial chemistry as it was practiced. I saw the problems as unique to specifc companies, and not systemic." Later, as a self-employed consultant, his con- sciousness was raised even further by some of his clients. One was the Good Housekeeping Re- search Institute—he worked on environmental standards for the GH Seal. Another was a small start-up with a funny name drawn from Native American lore. "I believe that we are all in this together, and therefore need to see that everyone is doing well,

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