By Danny Spitzberg
New website, one story, and more soap!
Seventh Generation, a pioneering eco-cleaning products company and a founding B Corp member, is based in Burlington, Vermont – but you probably have their soap in your kitchen. Now, after a year in the making, here’s how Seventh Generation is using new open source software to tell their story internationally.
CoLab has worked with Seventh Generation since 2015, and last year, they came to us with a new challenge: help scale their business and brand internationally. Seventh Generation is a rare company that has huge distribution as well as a complete commitment to reinventing the supply chain, from their #ComeClean campaign to new plant-based disinfectant sprays. To bring their products to new markets while staying true to their mission, Seventh Generation needed custom digital infrastructure.
Our development process tackled this two-part challenge with a component-based, decoupled design system. We saw an opportunity for Seventh Generation to have a single platform that they could roll out in any country or region. Using the latest version of the Drupal content management system, we built a fully localizable back-end, making it easy for Seventh Generation’s digital marketing team in Burlington to represent the brand around the world. We also developed a component-based style guide that allows regional brand managers and content producers the freedom to create a front-end user experience that shows the best of what Seventh Generation has to offer in a consistent way, without relying on their web team. And on top of it all, we optimized the site so that shoppers can browse items from nearby retailers, ensuring they get the environmentally friendly cleaning products they need.
The first sign of success was loading a batch of branded regional content in less time than we thought possible. Seventh Generation’s new international site launched this month, and they’ve never been prouder to share their story. Check it out!
Know a group looking for custom code? Send them this email! CoLab is taking on new web development projects next month.
Our allies in Asia
Coming to Hong Kong for #platformcoop 2018 this week? David Brooks and Danny Spitzberg are already here! Local organizers are hosting the third regional “coopathon” for two days of hacking on tech projects before the main conference kicks off on Friday. If you’re participating in-person, or if you plan to join the #platformcoop livestream, we’d love to share as much as we can – feel free to email friends@colab.coop or tweet @CoLabCoOp.
Next week, we’ll be in Taipei! g0v, the open source civic tech network pronounced “gov-zero”, is hosting a summit. Danny is presenting on cooperative alternatives alongside Felipe Venture of the latinx tech network Techqueria, Zhong-ting of the Underground Workers’ Cooperative, and Ching-Shu of the Taiwan Labour Front. The program is full of amazing sessions. Want more? Here’s a neat article about this group, How the g0v movement is forking the Taiwanese government.
Hello again! We hope you found this new heartbeat inspiring and useful. Next month, we’re looking forward to another exciting product launch, and to sharing a summary of past events from 2018 along with links to recordings and resources.