2008's greenwashes of the year

The Greenwash Brigade

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.)

Fiji Water’s new green campaign: Yes, shipping water in container ships from a pristine aquifer in paradise is somehow green. Really? (Heidi)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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!

December 22, 2008 by Jo Easton
14 comments

tags: 2008 Apple Big Three bottled water BP clean coal DNC RNC Shell

Comments (14)

James Turner | Respond
December 22, 2008 7:00 AM PT

Hey,

Funny you should mention BP - here in the UK we just did a mini action at their head office where we awarded them the "Emerald Paintbrush award".

Check it out:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/bps-wins-coveted-emerald-paintbrush-award-worst-greenwash-2008-20081218

UH2L | Respond
December 22, 2008 9:37 AM PT

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-news-from-the-press-lately-about-the--dire-situation-the-american-automobile-industry-is-in-in-pa.html

UH2L

Janne Flisrand: responding to UH2L | Respond
December 23, 2008 9:31 AM PT

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.

Mike: responding to Janne Flisrand | Respond
January 3, 2009 1:58 PM PT

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.

www.forddriveone.com

Lizzi: responding to Mike | Respond
May 11, 2009 2:52 PM PT

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.

Lisa | Respond
December 22, 2008 9:41 AM PT

Clorox Greenworks! They won't say what that last 1% is and they are no green company yet. People buy the products and think they are going green. It's a step but a much smaller one than they want us to believe.

Danielle: responding to Lisa | Respond
December 30, 2008 9:08 AM PT

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.

Geir | Respond
December 22, 2008 10:37 AM PT

You should rank these, or let us vote on them! No top list is complete without rankings!

Larry | Respond
December 22, 2008 10:30 PM PT

I vote for the Hydrogen Fuel Cell hype. Hello, that hydrogen has to be extracted from something, and for the most part that something is fossil fuel.

Helen: responding to Larry | Respond
December 24, 2008 7:07 AM PT

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.

Steve Clemens: responding to Helen | Respond
January 5, 2009 6:37 AM PT

Hydrogen is great.

Hydrogen might be the biggest and nastiest greenwash ever as it not only INCREASES pollution in a well-to-wheel analysis, it also benefits from ludicrous greenwash claims as 'no emmissions' and such. No local emissions, granted, but climate change doesn't work on local level.

Hydrogen is GREAT for ignorant people in need of a silver-bullet belief, politicians who need to spread taxpayers money and scientists who happen to work in exotic fuel cell tech.

Kwan | Respond
December 22, 2008 10:56 PM PT

You forgot about corn ethanol. Clear lands to grow corn then pulverize it to get its precious alcohol.

Anthony Nicalo | Respond
January 7, 2009 2:15 PM PT

In many ways, the opposite of Fiji. Fiji goes to great lengths to put something sustainable into packaging that is not sustainable. Many wineries put factory-made wine into sustainable packaging. So, one of my favorite greenwashing trends of 2008 was industrial wines made with lots of herbicides, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers during farming and lots of additives in the cellar in "green" packaging. Shouldn't what is in the package matter?

Jim | Respond
February 26, 2009 6:04 PM PT

Coen Brothers thoughts on Clean Coal: http://action.thisisreality.org/page/s/coenbrothers

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Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

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