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2008's greenwashes of the year
The Greenwash Brigade brings you our favorite greenwashes of 2008. Some good, some bad, some just plain funny -- and in no particular order. (Vote for your favorite in the comments.)
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Fiji Water's new green campaign: Yes, shipping water in container ships from a pristine aquifer in paradise is somehow green. Really? (Heidi)
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Big Three CEOs Drive Hybrids to DC: Taking a more economical and less carbon-intensive mode of travel on the second trip was an obvious choice, after the roasting they got for taking private jets. However, anyone who has done serious carbon footprint analysis on their travel has learned one thing -- there's not much difference in CO2 per mile, unless you up your passengers per vehicle. Using TerraPass, I did a quick round-trip calculation of a first-class ticket on Northwest from Detroit to DC and a 35mpg hybrid (slightly better than the Chevy Malibu Hybrid) and... the flight was 578 pounds and the car was 560. Fiscally and environmentally, it would have been better to fly a commercial carrier -- even first class -- than drive, because who wants to pay their CEO to spend two days driving to and from meetings? If they really wanted to show serious fiscal (or environmental) responsibility, they would have flown economy or carpooled with each other. The only reason I can think of for them to drive hybrids is to make the companies look green. (Janne)
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Clean Coal? - The ultimate oxymoron. Have a low-fat glazed donut with your clean coal. Burning coal is the leading source of global warming emissions. Burning coal isn't clean. Mountain top removal isn't clean. Carbon Capture and Sequestration is a pipe dream at this point. And the 2008 presidential candidates fell for it. Do they seriously think we think they believe it? (Jim/Janne/Dennis)
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Democrats and Republicans both have green conventions to cover for their lack of green policies. I don't want to make the claim that the two parties have equally bad environmental policies, as a matter of fact I argued that one had acceptable policies (except for the coal thing) and the other had an astonishing lack of policies here. Neither party has policies that come anywhere close to equaling the efforts they put into greening their conventions. (Here's a less-than-positive report from the Democratic convention, but hurricane Gustav and Sarah Palin seem to have drowned out any post-game news from the RNC, and all I could find was this analysis.) (Janne)
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Shell gets in trouble for greenwashing -- though in the UK, not the US. I'm thankful that somewhere, someone has first determined that lying to customers is not acceptable, and that someone with the authority to enforce that law has bothered. (Janne)
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A Greener Apple? - Don't eat that apple. Despite previous commitments to phase out the use of these chemicals by year's end, it appears that the latest 3G iPhone's ingredients include polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFR). Sony Ericsson and Nokia have PVC & BFR-free product lines. Source here. (Jim)
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GM's "gas friendly to gas free" campaign: The company begging for money from American taxpayers spends far more on its SUVs than on investing in fuel-efficient vehicles. And like its brethren, it continues to spend millions opposing CAFE standards. How about "gas free to full of gas"? (Heidi)
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Beyond Petroleum -- BP recognized the public demand to move to a post-fossil-fuel economy. While most of their advertising message has been updated with images of wind turbines and solar, 97% of their investment is still unfortunately in oil and coal. (Jim/Dennis)
Think we missed any top greenwashes of 2008? Add 'em in the comments below. And don't forget to tell us your #1 greenwash of the year -- and why.
Happy New Year to all our readers!
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Coen Brothers thoughts on Clean Coal: http://action.thisisreality.org/page/s/coenbrothers
You just know that if the Detroit 3 execs flew coach that somebody else would have criticized them for flying and not driving. I've seen green footprint calculators that make flying seem like an absolute no-no. And you're forgetting that driving the hybrids shows that they do have some efficient vehicles available today.
I'm not a big proponent of ethanol, but how does Heidi know that GM spends more on SUV's than it does on investing in fuel efficient vehicles? That may have beeen the case before, but have you ever heard of the Volt and all the fuel efficient technologies they're working on like hybrids, direct injection, cylinder deactivation? Probably not. That's because you don't really know what's going on in the industry.
And yes, all companies will fight regulations that adversely affect them. It's the government's job to not be swayed. But the way you wrote about this mostly singles out GM.
Same old anti-Detroit bias by the green community and the press at large. By the way, I'm an environmentalist Detroit 3 supporter. I wrote an article about the loans and why they were necessary here...
http://uh2l.blogs.com/things_ive_noticed/2008/11/weve-heard-a-lot-of-new...
UH2L
UH2L - I focused on the hybrid-driving (and not on the bailout), as I care only about the greenwashing aspect of their trip.
You say, "you're forgetting that driving the hybrids shows that they do have some efficient vehicles available today."
Turns out that only some of the cars they drove are available. ABC lists the cars they actually drove [here](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/Story?id=6387062&page=2).
General Motors did well on availability. CEO Rick Wagoner drove 1) Chevy Malibu Hybrid (available), Cobalt XFE (available, not hybrid, but efficient), E-85 Buick Lucerne (available, but E-85 hogwash). He test-drove Chevy VOLT (not available).
Ford CEO Alan Mulally drove a Ford Escape hybrid (available, but until the recent downturn, demand [consistently exceeded supply](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89248524)).
Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli took the Aspen. But, as [ABC reported](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/Story?id=6387062&page=1), "consumers wanting that nice shiny hybrid SUV that Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli arrived in might just be out of luck. Chrysler has plans to shut the factory where the Aspen is made. In fact, the automaker doesn't plan on having any hybrids in production until the 2010 Dodge Ram Pickup truck starts moving down the assembly line sometime next year."
Available? Only from GM.
The Ford Hybrid Escape was the 1st hybrid SUV. I have no trouble finding the Escape Hybrid on multiple Ford lots. The Fusion Hybrid just blew the Camry Hybrid out of the water. I think Ford deserves more props here, including their use of soy foam and the living roof at the Rouge plant.
I'm all for hybrids but the phrase 'hybrid SUV' is an oxymoron and a marketing gimmick. Those two words do not even belong in the same sentence. Most hybrid SUVs don't even get over 35 mph. The smaller, more compact hybrids get 40-50+ mph. If you really want to help save the planet drive a smaller car and reduce your impact.
I second that! Clorox and SC Johnson have tried to make the American people believe that bleach and anti-freeze are safe and green. Thank you Sierra Club for that sell out to Clorox. Undisclosed donations do throw up a bit of a red flag, don't they?
The SC Johnson "Green List" logo surely made someone feel safer spraying anti-freeze on their glass. "I'm green because I say so" might work on a play ground, but I ain't buying it.
Larry,
Hello, educate yourself: www.hydrogenenergycenter.org and www.rmi.org (Rocky Mountain Institute).
As long as we are in a fossil fuel based society most other forms of energy production would have to use oil or gas to get off the ground, but in a VERY SHORT period of time we can go to no or substantially small amounts of fossil fuels to create hydrogen energy. No ONE solution is a silver bullet, (although too many lazy Americans would like to see that). But to say hydrogen energy is a greenwash is ridiculous.
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