Greenwash Awards
CorpWatch gives out bimonthly Greenwash awards to corporations that put more money, time and energy into slick PR campaigns aimed at promoting their eco-friendly images, than they do to actually protecting the environment. Nominations for these Awards come from our audience.
 | BP: Beyond Petroleum or Beyond Preposterous? (2000) by Kenny Bruno May 12th, 2010 In 2000 British Petroleum launched an expensive ad campaign, re-branding its corporate image into the eco-friendly "BP: Beyond Petroleum.” We said it then. When a company spends more on advertising its environmental friendliness than on environmental actions, that's greenwash. Three long weeks into the BP oil disaster roiling the Gulf of Mexico, CorpWatch's December 2000 skewering of its new image sadly, bears repeating. |
| Greenwash 101 Fact Sheet January 25th, 2010 Here is a CorpWatch Fact Sheet about Greenwash. |
| UK: Vestey's vegan grandson sees off Shell by Isabel Oakeshott, The Sunday Times (UK) January 27th, 2008 SHELL has abandoned its sponsorship of one of Britain’s most prestigious wildlife photography exhibitions after protests by environmental groups. |
| 2008 Public Eye Awards by Pratap Chatterjee September 27th, 2007 |
| USA: Memo Exposes Bush's New Greenwash Strategy by Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian March 4th, 2003 The US Republican party is changing tactics on the environment, avoiding "frightening" phrases such as global warming, after a confidential party memo warned that it is the domestic issue on which George Bush is most vulnerable. |
 | What Are They Thinking? GM Executives Must be Living on Saturn! by Kenny Bruno, CorpWatch November 7th, 2002 What are GM execs thinking? Their Saturn ad likens an SUV to endangered arctic species. |
| New from Food First Books and CorpWatch: Earth Summit.biz by CorpWatch August 27th, 2002 An energy company plants trees and donates electric cars to advertise its environmental commitment while polluting the air with coal-fired power plants for three-quarters of its energy. Hypocrisy? No, business as usual for many corporations, according to Earthsummit.biz, the latest from Food First Books and CorpWatch, published to coincide with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. |
| USA: Holcim -- Global Greenwasher by Lucy Komisar, Pacific News Service August 26th, 2002 Along with environmentalists and community activists, big business has descended upon Johannesburg, South Africa, to tout its own "green" growth strategies in the summit on Earth-friendly development. But if the environmental record of one key corporate player is any indication, the overtures are pure "greenwash." |
| Greenwash Academy Awards Announced at Earth Summit by CorpWatch August 23rd, 2002 Oil majors Shell, BP and ExxonMobil dominated todays World Summit Greenwash Academy Awards, beating Biotech giants Monsanto, Novartis and Aventis in a glittering award ceremony in Johannesburg. Local South African underdog Sasol edged out Eskom for Best Picture. |
| EarthSummit.Biz Launched by CorpWatch June 11th, 2002 San Francisco, London and Johannesberg -- In preparation for the Johannesburg Earth Summit, the Greenwash Academy is proud to announce that nominations are open for the Green Oscars -- the premier awards for corporations acting green. |
| US: Court Says Nike Must Defend its PR by Harriet Chiang, San Francisco Chronicle May 3rd, 2002 The California Supreme Court delivered a stiff warning to businesses Thursday, ruling that a San Francisco man can sue Nike Inc. for false advertising for allegedly lying about working conditions at Asian factories where its athletic shoes and clothes are made. |
 | Fabric from Corn: Greenfleece or Greenwash? by Tom Price, Special to Corpwatch April 22nd, 2002 Is fabric made from corn an eco-friendly wonder product or just more greenwash? |
| USA: The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business by Tim Carvell, Adam Horowitz, Thomas Mucha, Business 2.0 April 1st, 2002 In a perfect world, a list like this would not exist. In a perfect world, businesses would be run with the utmost integrity and competence. But ours is, alas, an imperfect world, and if we must live in one where Enron, Geraldo Rivera, and Cottonelle Fresh Rollwipes exist, the least we can do is catalog the absurdities. |
| USA: Starbucks Beans Not So Green by Shireen Deen, Valley Advocate March 25th, 2002 By the end of the year, Starbucks will increase its ever-growing empire by opening a coffee shop in Mexico City -- the first Starbucks in Latin America. Ironically, Starbucks will soon be selling gourmet coffee to the very people who are under-paid for harvesting coffee beans. News of the Mexico City shop came as Starbucks was presenting its first Corporate Social Responsibility report at its annual shareholders' meeting in Seattle last month. The report emphasized the company's claimed commitment to doing business in socially, economically and environmentally responsible ways, to benefit the communities around the world where it does business. |
 | Philip Morris Changes Its Name But Not Its Tactics by Tom Price, Special to CorpWatch March 14th, 2002 Tobacco giant Philip Morris is undergoing a PR makeover. This Greenwash Award says the public won't be fooled. |
| INDONESIA: Running From Reebok's Hypocrisy by Alexander Cockburn, Los Angeles Times February 7th, 2002 Right till the end of January, Dita Sari was preparing to fly from her home near Jakarta to Salt Lake City to bask today in the admiration of assorted do-gooders and celebrities mustered by Reebok. The occasion is the 13th annual Human Rights Awards, overseen by a board that includes Jimmy Carter and Kerry Kennedy Cuomo. |
 | Greenwash + 10 by Kenny Bruno, CorpWatch January 24th, 2002 This new report documents corporate influence on the United Nations and calls on the UN to take measures for accountability. |
| USA: Ford CEO Says He's Green by Emilia Askari, Detroit Free Press October 31st, 2001 Lana Pollack, executive director of the Michigan Environmental Council, likes William Clay Ford Jr. so much that she says she did a little jig on the sidewalk in front of the Ford Motor Co. headquarters after they met to exchange views. |
| USA: DuPont's Goal -- Change Nature of Its Business by Harold Brubaker, Philadelphia Inquirer September 2nd, 2001 DuPont is trying to become a sustainable company but environmentalists are skeptical. |
| US: Nike Capitalizes on the Anti-Capitalists by Alicia Rebensdorf, AlterNet August 7th, 2001 An angry mob gathered around a train station, passing out photocopied flyers and shouting protests against an unjust company. Scrappy stickers were slapped on billboards, directing passers-by to a crudely designed website. The company they were railing against was a frequent target of grassroots activism: Nike. And the group running this guerilla-style anti-advertising campaign? None other than Nike itself. |