AbstractThe reduction of esters and aldehydes to alcohols is an important reaction in the chemical industry to produce a wide range of bulk and fine chemicals. Herein, the unexpected behavior of three state‐of‐the‐art, commercially available Ru‐catalysts for the hydrogenation of these feedstocks is reported. For ester and aldehydes containing a C=C bond, it was possible to carry out the selective hydrogenation of the ester or aldehyde functionality while keeping the C=C double‐bond essentially untouched. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that these substrates can be reduced under very mild reaction conditions (as low as 40 °C and 5 bar of H2) and that anisole, a solvent with a high sustainability rank, is suitable for these catalytic hydrogenations.