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Company presentation offers glimpse of life on the other side
Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall at a top-level corporate meeting just to see what really goes on behind closed doors? Consider this nifty PowerPoint presentation your ticket in.
It turns out chlorine companies talk about Oceana in their meetings as much as Oceana talks about them. The Chlorine Institute held a meeting a few months back where one of the companies gave a formal presentation about being "In the 'Crosshairs' of an Environmental NGO."
Their presentation looks an awful lot like our presentations -- outlining all of our tactics to stop seafood contamination, which to them are challenges they need to overcome. It's nice to know that ERCO has realized Oceana's in it for the long haul.
My favorite slide? "Essential survival tactics."
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… but doesn’t let governments off the hook
So I'm a sucker. I can't walk by a newsstand where a magazine features a pair of innocent green cotyledons sprouting from a bed of industrial factories. It's this week's issue of The Economist, and what's inside the "Cleaning Up" issue is as alluring as the cover.
Although I've only just skimmed, the articles look promising, and they're all freely available online. Here's the rundown:
- "Cleaning up: How business is starting to tackle climate change, and how governments need to help"
- "Everybody's green now: How America's big businesses got environmentalism"
- "Trading thin air: The carbon market is working, but not bringing forth as much innovation as had been hoped"
- "Irrational Incandescence: People can't be bothered to make easy energy savings"
- "Fairfield vs. the valley: Two competing models for the clean-energy business"
- "Sunlit uplands: Wind and solar power are flourishing, thanks to subsidies"
- "Boom: As security and climate concerns rise, nuclear power may be coming back"
- "Dirty king coal: Scrubbing carbon from coal-fired power stations is possible but pricey"
- "The drive for low emissions: Car and fuel companies are investing in clean transport"
- "The final cut: Business can do it, with governments' help"
- Audio interview: "A discussion with Emma Duncan, Deputy Editor of The Economist"
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Check Baby Check Baby One Two … 300
Wachovia, fourth-largest U.S. bank, plans to build 300 green branches The fourth-largest bank in the U.S. will build only green branches by the end of 2008, aiming for 300 eco-friendly offices by 2010. Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., is expanding into California and will begin its green experiment there. It is also seeking LEED certification […]
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Can Hemp Dashboards Be Far Behind?
Union leader, Ford call for green progress in Detroit Could Big Auto be shifting gears? Speaking at a business conference on Michigan’s (car-free) Mackinac Island yesterday, Ford Motor Company Chair Bill Ford Jr. and United Automobile Workers President Ron Gettelfinger both addressed the need for Detroit to get with the green program. “Unfortunately, there is […]
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A conference for green money types
Right now there’s a big conference going on in London: "Corporate Climate Response." All sorts of international corporate bigwigs (and some smallerwigs) are in attendance, discussing businessy green stuff. A crew of folks is live-blogging the event here, replete with audio, video, and good old fashioned text. If you want a glimpse into the concerns […]
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So Long, San Pellegrino
Restaurants, schools tap into local water supplies You’ve heard of eating locally, but the latest fad may be drinking locally. Some restaurants and schools are starting to serve filtered tap water instead of bottled water, citing the eco-impacts of packaging and shipping a product that’s already available right thar in the kitchen. But it seems […]
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Business is splitting from Republicans; the time is right for a tax
In Washington Monthly, Chris Hayes draws attention to the "revolt of the CEOs." Big Business is parting ways with the Republican Party, actively seeking greater government involvement in the realms of health care and climate change. Why? Two reasons. One, CEOs recognize that rising health care costs and global warming are real problems that will […]
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Which companies are going beyond green
"Eco fashion" has definitely become the buzzword of the moment.
Within the last month alone, my office has received calls from over a half-dozen trade shows and runway organizers seeking to green their events. Apparel companies and clients feverishly searching for organic clothing sources are also becoming quite common. The press seems to be foaming at the mouth for new material too, which is always a good sign; but, in the U.S. at least, we have yet to graduate beyond the "green" theme. This week I'll be speaking to a U.K.-based women's glossy on "ethical fashion," a term I hear used far more frequently in Europe.
"Ethical" brings a more social-cultural perspective to the mix, one you don't always get when talking straight up "eco" speak. The term has its roots in the fair-trade movement. Fair trade got its start 50 years ago, well before the idea of "eco fashion" was ever embraced by popular culture. It started with international aid groups working with small-scale African farmers. It wasn't until the late 1980s that an international system of Fair Trade certification and labeling was introduced, but heck -- that was about 20 years ago!Still, "fair trade" and "ethical" fashion have yet to find their footing in America's popular culture. They are terms that still remain too esoteric for the general public, particularly because fair trade is more often associated with foodstuffs and artsy-crafty products. There are a couple of reasons for this.
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Not always, but green branding has potential to connect consumers to their ‘inner green’
In an undeniable rush, corporate giants are jumping on the "green" bandwagon: Wal-mart, Ford, Dow, General Electric, British Petroleum, Chevron, DuPont, to name only a few. "There's a tendency to put a green smiley face on everything," says Joel Makower, author of The Green Consumer. And smiley faces are rearing their heads all over the place. "We use our waste CO2 to grow flowers," claims a Shell Oil ad.
Right ...
But the concept isn't new. In 1999, "greenwash" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, where it is defined as: "Disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image." Naturally, green branding breeds even greener skeptics.
There are plenty of arguments for why this is inherently bad, especially if it's just lip service -- or worse, polishing up the public image of big polluters or convincing people that an environmental problem is being solved by industry when it isn't.
On the other hand, if huge corporate ad campaigns help cultivate a green-conscious public that doesn't stop at voting with their dollars but also votes its greenness at the ballot box, we have a better chance of moving sustainable policies forward. Greenwashing, for all the ire it raises among the truly green, might have long term political benefits.
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Goals Gone Wild
GE’s green division makes money, makes plans General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt gushed about his company’s green successes at a second-anniversary celebration for the “ecomagination” unit yesterday, noting that it had sales of $12 billion last year, has back orders for $50 billion more, and will “blow away” the original goal of $20 billion by […]