Sasol and Eskom are shortlisted to receive Greenwash Academy Awards, given on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development to corporations accused of “acting — but not behaving — green”.
Shell, BP and Monsanto are also among the finalists spotlighted for putting “more money, time and energy into slick PR campaigns aimed at promoting their eco-friendly images than they do to actually protect the environment”.
The awards, also called the Green Oscars, are handed out by a coalition of international environmental NGOs gathering in Johannesburg for the World Summit. The winners are due to be announced on Friday afternoon.
Though the greenwash competition is a tongue-in-cheek spoof, it highlights shortfalls in corporate accountability and transparency. The awards are the culmination of a week-long workshop on these topics hosted by Friends of the Earth International, CorpWatch and the local NGO groundWork.
“You’ve seen the ads. Lush green forests. Stunning birds of prey in flight. Humpback whales breaching. Pristine streams glimmering in the sunlight. All photographed beautifully and reproduced at great expense. And all brought to you by major oil, chemical, nuclear and biotechnology companies,” say the organisers.
“In fact, it’s often the world’s most polluting corporations that have developed the most sophisticated techniques to communicate their message of corporate environ- mentalism. Meanwhile, the climate is changing, communities are being devastated, forests are disappearing, species are going extinct.”
Sasol is shortlisted, they say, because of its advertising campaigns claiming, “We put as much into the community as we do into our petrol.”
The citation for Sasol’s nomination reads: “Indeed they do — including high levels of benzene, vinyl chloride and methylene chloride. Sasol’s reports admit to annual air pollution in Sasolburg alone amounting to more than 42 000 tons of volatile organic compounds, 22 000 tons of hydrogen sulphide and 26 000 tons of sulphur dioxide.”
Eskom Enterprises is honoured for its plans involving pebble-bed modular reactors, for “promoting the desira- bility of multi-lane highways all over Africa and claiming to dare to dream of electrification of the continent … when they are simultaneously leaving hundreds of thousands in South African townships in darkness and debt”.
The organisers admit those on the shortlist also do good things for the environment and development, but say the public needs to be aware of the gulf between eco-rhetoric and reality.