From Kermit to Coal, Book Reveals How World's Top Brands Greenwash The Public

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โ€œI GUESS it is easy being green,โ€ said Kermit the Frog as he bounced around a Ford Escape Hybrid in a 2006 television adย campaign.

During the ad, Kermit displayed hisย innateย talent for not blinking which, it has to be said, is due essentially to his congenital lack ofย eyelids.

But had Kermit blinked, he would have missed the small print at the bottom of the ad which showed that at the time, this โ€œgreenโ€ vehicle had a fuel consumption slightly worse than the USย average.

But that seems to be the rule when it comes to claims of climate-friendlinessย made by some of the world’s biggestย brands.

Check the small print, and the responsible green hue soon fades to something resembling bullsh*t-brown (or whatever color denotes hypocrisy). At least that’s the conclusion after reading Australian author and researcher Guy Pearse’s latest book. Pearse spent close to four years immersing himself in some 3000 TVย commercials and viewing about 4000 print and web adverts, all of which make claims of climate friendliness (I disclose here that I had a small paid role as a fact-checker on theย book).

After checking the brand’s actual contribution to climate change (or their lack of transparency) in more than 700 company reports, Pearse finds in Greenwash: Big Brands and Carbon Scams that the green revolution is being either grossly overblown orย faked.

Some 24 industry sectors, a host of โ€œeco-celebsโ€ and most of the world’s top brands are covered in the book and very few emerge unscathed.

Among the brands examined are Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonalds, Bank of America, Barclays, Apple, Starbucks, GM, Yum! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), Boeing, Virgin, GM, Toyota, FedEx, UPS, DHL, Tesco, Walmart, News Corp, CBS and many more. The book’s inside sleeve displays a tic-a-tape of greenย slogans.

Pearse, a research fellow at the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute, finds that brands pull a series of common tricks when they make claims that they’re cutting their emissions. For example, take Wyndham hotels, who don’t count the emissions from the 7000 franchised properties which bear theirย name.

Or Panasonic, which ignores the emissions from the raw materials needed to make all their electronic gadgets (a common omission). Then there’s the regular trick of having a target to cut emissions which is based on carbon intensity (such as CO2 per sq metre of floor space or per product) but ignoring the fact those savings are rubbed out many times over as companiesย expand.

Other companies claim concern for the climate while failing to disclose their carbon footprints. Sometimes Pearse simply reveals rank hypocrisy, such as Royal Bank of Canada buying offsets for a carbon-neutral Olympics torch relay while also financing tar sands and coalย projects.

The book is sure to leave many climate conscious consumers feeling like they’ve been had (no doubt the climate would express some dismay too, if it could). But should consumers feel hopeless? Pearse toldย DeSmogBlog:

I donโ€™t think people should feel hopeless about the greener product, but they need to distinguish between the individual product and the climate-friendliness of the larger brand. Itโ€™s hard to argue that a brand is that concerned about climate change if the overall footprint of its products is still growing while itโ€™s busy conveying the opposite impression. We also need to be realistic about the number of people buying the green product, and the cumulative impact, if we stay on the path weโ€™re on.

Pearse also reserves some criticism for environmental groups who allow their brands or their projects to beย alignedย with emissions-intensive businesses, including major coal and oil companies or their financiers (think Earth Hour).

Some environmental groups shoulder much more responsibility than others. Thereโ€™s nothing wrong with environmental groups seeking out corporate champions. However, when these groups routinely mis-represent companies whose products have a growing carbon footprint as โ€˜climate saversโ€™ and the like, theyโ€™ve really become a part of the greenwashing problemโ€”lending credibility to the notion that big brands are going green when theyโ€™re not. That winds up feeding complacency and a misplaced faith in a revolution thatโ€™s not actually happening.

So after spending hundreds of hours looking at green claims in adverts, does Pearse have anyย โ€œfavouritesโ€?

For sheer entertainment value, my favourite green ad is probably Audiโ€™s Green Police Superbowl commercial. The green billboards are also right up there โ€“ from Cokeโ€™s one in Manila with its 3,600 carbon-absorbing tea plants to Ricohโ€™s 3 renewable billboards in London, New York and Sydney โ€“ all of them helping to greenwash growing carbon footprints. Some of the fashion industry brands are pretty memorable too โ€“ from the Global Warming Ready campaign by Diesel to the โ€˜Look hot while discussing global warmingโ€™ poster by Leviโ€™s.

One of the most striking elements in the book is how Pearse reveals time and time again, how major corporations will heavily market even the smallest of environmental achievements, while ignoring their direct interests in fossil fuels. So who does Pearse pick as the worst of theseย greenwashers?

Shell probably wins as the most prolific and shameless case. Even as they seek to expand oil and gas production by a sixth in 5 years there seems no limit to the fantasies woven into their climate-friendly advertising pitch: from billboards with smokestacks emitting flowers to CO2 molecules being chased with butterfly nets, to the โ€˜Letโ€™s grow our own fuel. Letโ€™s Goโ€™ posters, to their sponsorship of solar vehicles in the Eco-Marathon. Itโ€™s as relentless as it is disconnected from Shellโ€™s core business.

As Kermit pointed out, it appears it is easy being green – or at least, it’s easy being greenwashed.ย ย 

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