Last December, the organisation Consumers International published its Bad Company Awards for 2009, recognising excellence in the noble field of greenwashing. Among the four winners, next to Microsoft and EasyJet, Audi was awarded for its “far-reaching TV and Internet advertising campaign that appeared to claim that its Audi A3 TDI could be run on “clean diesel” and was as friendly to the environment as cycling or catching the bus”. Another award went to BP for “publicly talking about its commitment to renewable energy but quietly pulling out of several major renewable projects, while continuing to invest heavily on fossil fuels”. A special award was given to the marvellous website CO2 is Green, “a new organisation backed by several key players in the US fossil fuel industry, claiming that increasing levels of CO2 are good for the environment” (see Carbusters #40). The real challenge will be to find a mainstream company that is not greenwashing, but is actually trying to change its way of producing and selling things – starting with selling things we actually need. And we don’t want to wait in vain…

consumersinternational.org