greenwashing

Monsanto CEO applies for sainthood

I’m watching the CEO of Monsanto, Hugh Grant, talk about how his company is a boon to sustainability. They’re focused on reducing the footprint of agriculture and feeding the world’s hungry — especially poor African women. Oh, and also they’re dedicated to reducing water use. All the farmers that use their seeds love them, and […]

Activists worldwide target coal plants and banks

Rainforest Action Network's Matt Leonard provides this roundup of Fossil Fools Day actions targeting coal plants, coal minings, and the banks funding it all. Rising Tide (North America, U.K., and International units) spearheaded these efforts and others.

Cliffside: 8 Arrested as North Carolina residents shut down construction at Cliffside coal plant
At 6:30 a.m., North Carolina residents locked themselves to bulldozers to stop the construction of Duke Energy's massive Cliffside coal-fired power plant being built 50 miles west of Charlotte, N.C. "In the face of catastrophic climate change, building a new coal plant is tantamount to signing a death sentence for our generation," said local farmer Matt Wallace while locked to a bulldozer. The concerned citizens also roped off the construction site with "Global Warming Crime Scene" tape and held banners that read "Coal Fuels Climate Change" and "Social Change, not Climate Change." (more)

Strongbadia gets a gulp o’ greenwashing

Remember that goofy ‘toon site Homestarrunner.com and its boxing-gloved, email-answering hero, Strong Bad? Well, apparently not even web cartoon characters are safe from the fierce green gaze of environmental imperialism: his readers finally call him out on his lack of eco-initiative. So what does Strong Bad do to help save the planet? You mean, besides […]

See how easy it is being Green(TM)! Just use Greenwash!

Luckily, some folks at the U. of Oregon are tracking it.

BP joins ‘biggest global warming crime ever seen’

The tar sands are rightly called one of the world's greatest environmental crimes, as I've written. No company that invests in the Canadian tar sands can legitimately call itself green.

Yet BP, the oil company that lavished millions on advertising its move "Beyond Petroleum," announced this month it's putting $3 billion into this dirtiest of dirty fuels!

BP is buying a half-share of the ironically named Sunrise field:

The greening of Chevron is not as impressive as they’d like you to think

Those greenwashing ads are really starting to bug me. "It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. We'll use the next trillion in 30." And you're proud of this fact -- proud of your role in bringing about the wholesale destruction of this planet's climate?

Will you join us? No, I won't. I'm trying to figure out a way to get people to use a lot less of your polluting product.

And now, "Chevron Announces New Global 'Human Energy' Advertising Campaign." I suppose it's better than the ad campaign for "inhuman energy" that they have been running for decades -- though it strikes me as a lame ripoff of Dow's "Human Element" campaign.

Chevron has taken the equivalent of three full-page ads in today's Washington Post. One of the ads says, "We've increased the energy efficiency of our own operations by 27% since 1992." To quote Clarence Thomas, "Whoop-Dee-Damn-Doo."

Is Environmental Defense leader Fred Krupp a savvy dealmaker or a stooge?

I keep meaning to link to The New Republic‘s thoughtful profile of Fred Krupp, head honcho at Environmental Defense: Krupp, of all environmentalists, has been the most successful in persuading the corporate world–and those who support its interests–to embrace the green cause. Among his accomplishments, Krupp has helped convince McDonald’s to abandon Styrofoam for paper, […]

Greenwashing is getting more subtle

This article in Slate got me thinking. I'm usually inclined to believe that any greening of business is good, but it seems like "greenwashing" is getting more subtle, with the media playing right into it with their lavish features on new "green" initiatives, regardless of their content and effectiveness. Take-home point: better government policy is much more significant than any voluntary greening by business. Something we've always known, but always worth a reminder.

Apparently no one is immune to greenwashing

The genius Lily Tomlin once noted how hard it is to be funny these days, when satire can't keep up with the number of people who miss it entirely and use it as a script rather than a warning.

A few days back, Grey posted this great short video:

Just one day later, a group that has done tremendous work in the past -- a group I give to monthly and normally love, Redefining Progress -- sent me the letter below (after the jump).

It's grim. Despite the throwaway "we don't mean to encourage more shopping," the site sure looks like it does.