Today's Greenwashing Moment: Bold Audi Ad Pokes Fun at EcoFacism

Satire has overtaken the airwaves and this Breaking Superbowl Ad from Audi is a very ironic piece. Since its inception, the automobile has been a catalyst for status as well as a social equalizer. Early car ads described the car as manageable and were rather perfunctionary. As people became accustomed to driving, the commercials began to accelerate, literally. Now, the next favorable marketing niche is green.

The fascist overtones amuse greenies, but decriers of eco-terrorism are pounding the blogosphere as if the green police were already on their doorstep.

This Week's Greenwash: Nespresso Composts Jeweled Coffee Grounds

A composting video from Nespresso Ecolaboration TM

We could not resist this beautifully produced and incredibly ironic promotional video for Nespresso's composting coffee and recyling campaign. That said, Nespresso does make a delicious expresso and brings to light the question of our urge for enhanced experiences and the implications they have for our sustainable planet.

In a Pickle of Greenwash

The War Over Eco-Labels

From GreenBiz.com

What is certifiably green? Well, while having three hundred eco-labels in the market is not beneficial, having competing types of labels provides solutions to different market needs, according to author of this article. Whether it's a Single-Attribute, Multi-Attribute, Environmental Product Declarations Label, it isn't the same.
read more | digg story

FUEL Runs on People Power

"FUEL"

Winner of this year's Sundance Audience Choice Award for best documentary, "Fuel" premiered in Southern California over the weekend. The director-narrator Josh Tickell weaves his personal story with interviews from environmentalists, "green" celebrities, educators and policy makers to expose the manipulated world of fossil fuel oil industry and the hopeful promise of biofuel as an alternative.

Instead of going to a movie to escape
from your problems, go to a movie
that might solve your problems.

To have the documentary "Fuel" shown in your area, the filmmakers recommend you send this sample letter to your local theater.

For more information on the movie and the community it is trying to engage, go to the Fuel website.

Consumers Put Ads to Greenwashing Test

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Green ads from Chevrolet, Ozarka and Toyota Prius are among the first to be scrutinized by consumers on a new Web site launched today by EnviroMedia Social Marketing, in partnership with the advertising faculty of the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC). This online forum allows consumers to judge for themselves the green claims made by major advertisers.

The Web site -- http://www.GreenwashingIndex.com -- debuts from the nation's capital one day before the Federal Trade Commission kicks off its first in a series of public workshops addressing environmental marketing claims. Ultimately, the FTC may update its "Green Guides," which were originally established in 1992 as guidelines to avoid action by the agency against advertising with an environmental claim that is unfair or deceptive.

EnviroMedia principals Valerie Davis and Kevin Tuerff announced the Greenwashing Index(SM) from the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, Dec. 11 and called on consumers to submit ads. The first posts of real ads are now on the Web site, and consumers are invited to score those ads and post others.

"We've been witnessing a tidal wave of green advertising over the past year," said EnviroMedia President Kevin Tuerff. "It's our hope the Greenwashing Index(SM) will help eradicate bad environmental marketing claims and, at the same time, shine a positive light on companies making measurable reductions in carbon emissions related to climate change."

What's Greenwashing?

"Greenwashing," a term that has been around for many years, is used to describe a company or organization that spends more time and money claiming to be green through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact.

"When an ad is posted and ranked on the Greenwashing Index(SM) site, it doesn't necessarily mean a company or organization is not doing a good job with its environmental marketing claims," said EnviroMedia CEO Valerie Davis.

"We're providing a venue that educates consumers on what to look for in green
ads and an easy mechanism for evaluating them. Scores will range from 'good,'
to 'pushing it,' to 'total greenwashing.'"

GreenPeace of UK Greenwash of the Year Award Goes to...

United Kingdom's Green Peace activists attempt to give the first annual Emerald Paintbrush Award to a company that has excelled in Greenwashing in this video. While the activists made it to the front desk of the award winner, British Petroleum (BP), they were hastily removed from the premises still holding the green award, the doors closed behind them.

The citation awarded BP for:

A multi-million dollar advertising campaign proclaiming its commitment to the earth, the sun and everything in between, and proudly announcing that the best way out of the energy "fix" is an energy "mix".

In reality, the unnamed Tuxedo-clad activist said, BP had spent 93 per cent of its 2008 investment dollars in oil and gas exploration, drilling and distribution. Solar power received just $300 million dollar or just 1.3 per cent of BP's total investment.

"So thanks must go to at this moment to BP senior staff, investment managers, strategists, and above all its advertising agency," the jocular Green Peace representative concluded.

Progressive Politics Needs to Build Beyond Obama's Platform

One Person's "Green" is Another's Black Tea

What does "Being Green" mean to the mainstream media, to the Democratic and the Republican insiders?

The title of CBS's Horserace blog entry today was entitled"Not easy Being Green". The author used the phrase "Being Green" to discuss the challenges Barak Obama will feel in finding a running mate who vets well under public scrutiny, given all the ties to corporations and lobbyists.

Is there irony that the CBS article was "Presented by Exxon Mobil". Perhaps the title should have been "Not easy Finding Green when you declare that you will no longer take corporate or lobbyist money", as Obama declared last week.

While it's not easy "Being Green" it's really not easy being "Seriously Green." Ask a Green Party Presidential candidate, whose party allows no corporate funding whatsoever and whose party members are, by and large, working class people without spare dollars.

With little ground organization provided by the party, except in a few states like Illinois, Maryland, Maine, California and New York, all four of the Green Party Presidential candidates are working hard to collect enough to pay for trips to their potential constituents and to their Convention, let alone qualify for matching funds. None of them are close, at this point, to meeting the base requirements of raising $5000 from 22 different states, not even the lead candidate, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

The Green Party's national leadership today sent out a donation plea to party members on behalf of all the candidates. Being a party that espouses democratic values and egalitarianism, the party leadership could not ask directly for donations to go to the presumptive candidate, McKinney. However, Richard Winger, of Ballot Access News believes that the National Green Party leaders should have done just that so that at least one candidate could carry the Green flag with some kind of visibility into the final election period.

What will McKinney do if the funds are not raised? Will she raise or fold? If she folds, will one of the three remaining candidates, Jesse Johnson, Kent Mesplay or Kat Swift, claim the responsibility for finishing the campaign or does Ralph Nader ride into the rescue? These questions are circulating amongst Greens as they also watch many notable Greens, chief amongst them being California Green Party co-counder and San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, accept Obama as a choice they can abide.

Oh no, it really isn't easy "Being Green."

McCain Waves Green Hand Over Florida - Irony not Lost on Green Party Presidential Candidate Mesplay

The presumptive Republican candidate for President, John McCain skimmed over the Florida everglades today in an effort to demonstrate his concern over environmental issues. McCain hopes to impress voters that his environmental record is much better than Obama's.

The irony is not lost on Green Party Presidential candidate Kent Mesplay. In a recent interview, Mesplay said, "There's a tendency of candidates and corporations to greenwash, to pretend that they are more into environmental issues than they really are, which is fine, because they are moving in the right direction. Then, it's up to seriously green people to ask the serious questions, 'Well, just how Green are you?'"

Polidoc is awaiting some music rights before unveiling a finalized piece on Mesplay, but here's a sneak peek.

Today's Greenwash Highlight

Could not resist shraring this bit of Greenwash I came across today. On a related note, the DNC Convention hosts are having difficulty raising the necessary funds for their planned show, some of which included high profile greening of the event. It will be interesting to see just how green the machine can be when put under such pressure.

Pelosi & Gingrich in Green Spot Together

Candidates Perform Green Dance to Garner Gore's Favor

Former Vice-President, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and last but not least, Academy Award winning Al Gore's superdelegate endorsement is the prettiest girl at the dance. Hoping to monopolize that dance card at the Democratic Nominating Convention, Senators Clinton and Obama are talking up Green initiatives.

Nice tight article here from MSNBC with the hopeful conclusion that, regardless of who becomes President, the whole world is expecting a big shift in the United States Energy Policy.

read more | digg story

Democrats Ready to Ride the Green Wave?

Democratic leaders want to ride the Green wave into this year's election. Will the Dems shoot the curl or are they just skimboarding?

At the last convention, going green meant focusing on recycling trash and reducing waste during convention week. Now DNCC officials have paid professional greeners to guide them before and after the convention to the next baby step in going green.

"It's not about PR," assured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "It's about substance."

But amongst Green Party leaders, the co-opting of the Green brand poses a threat to the party's membership and future growth and greenwashes the urgent issues at hand.

Co-founder of the Green Party and high ranking San Francisco elected official, Ross Mirkarimi fears that liberal Democrats who have adopted green lifestyle like a cloak, will significantly impact the ability to attract new voters into the Green Party. "Ecological disaster has become so mainstream. We've become so successful at influencing the other parties on agenda, that they don't even have to credit the source." He said he feels the lament of a parent who wonders if their child will survive.

"The Democrats have the rhetoric but not the substance," retorts another co-founder, Howie Hawkins.

For Greens, shooting the Green wave would include:

• immediate overhaul of sustainability practices throughout government
• immediate withdrawal from Iraq with diplomatic solutions supsported and varying degrees of military presence in out-lying regions to support humanitarian concerns.
  
• creation of a single-payer health reform such as in Canada
• reform of the drug laws and the prison system
• targeted Reconstruction efforts
• ecological and environmental justice
• social justice and equal rights
• decentralize government and return to local control, keeping tax money closer to home
• electoral and ballot access reform

That makes the DNC skimboarders in the face of Mavericks.

Bloomberg Flourishes Green as a Sustainable Practicality

Big business is turning green with opportunity. It's part of every corporations' marketing campaign, including the oil business.

Mayor of NYC, Michael Bloomberg stood before guests of Newsweek's second annual ‘Global Environment Leadership Conference' and urged big business leaders gathered that sustainable businesses cannot only thrive in, but improve the environment.

“Now, for far too long, environmentalism has gotten pitted against economic development. But that’s a myth that ought to be laid to rest. Arnold (Schwareznegger) talked about that at last year’s conference. He spoke about how we can protect the environment and also protect the economy.

“Today, I’m not only going to second that idea, but take it one step further. Because the fact is that we can actually improve our environment while growing our economy. Certainly, growing our economy is a major concern in Washington, and throughout the nation, too. It’s not going to be easy or simple. It’s going to require leadership in the public and private sectors and change in our public and private lives.
“One thing that I’ve learned in government is that there’s always a good reason to do nothing. But business – and government, too – both increasingly recognize that going green is the best – indeed the only – pro-growth strategy, not just for the long term, but in the short run as well.
“The other participants in today’s conference can vouch for that, too. Let’s start with the private sector, where today green business is clearly good business. Just ask the representatives here today from Starbucks, Saatchi & Saatchi, Stoneyfield Farms, and Fetzer Vineyards, who will be on a panel entitled ‘Profitability through Sustainability.’
“They’ll tell you that going green helps the bottom line by reducing energy consumption and lowering energy costs. It’s also a plus in recruiting and retaining top employees – men and women who are often very environmentally conscious and active. And in today’s highly competitive economy – where the best people can and will go where they feel most comfortable – that’s an increasingly, and even overridingly, important factor.
“Cities are intensely competitive with one another, too. Increasingly, quality of life provides the winning edge in that competition. It’s often what separates the front runners from the also-rans in the global economy. Believe me, I know where I want New York City to be in that race. And I know that – as big as the benefits of environmentalism are, and as big as the risks of climate change if we don’t act – a lot of people would still rather do nothing.
“It takes courage to ask people to change – even if it won’t really cost them much. Political leaders today are afraid of their constituents. As Evan Thomas notes in this week’s Newsweek, ‘it takes a very great leader to extract sacrifice from the voters, but if we wait until the water starts lapping over Manhattan to really do something to affect climate change, it will be too late.’

Hopefully, environmental activists and inventors who have long sought business reforms, can take some pleasure in this greenwashing, though it's unlikely that much gratitude will come their way for their decades of efforts. While it might take a great leader to extract sacrifices from the voters, it will take a humble activist to stop from saying, "I told you so."