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Archive for Corporate Messaging

McDonalds: Saving the Ocean or Fast Food Greenwashing?

Is the new McBite sandwich fastfood greenwashing?Late last month McDonald’s announced the addition of “Fish McBites” to the menu for their 14,000 US restaurants starting in February. Labeled as “juicy, tender and irresistible,” the fast food chain is also touting that they will source the fish for the new product from sustainable wild-caught Alaskan pollock fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). In addition, McDonalds says it will also use the MSC-certified Alaskan pollock for their venerable Filet-O-Fish sandwich as well. Many are touting the claim that McDonald’s seafood offerings are going “all sustainable,” appearing ready to queue up at the counter for their first bite of a sustainably caught Fish McBite.

Now that sounds like a great thing, so we though we’d take a closer look. Read More→

Do Corporate Greenwashing Scandals have a Shelf-Life?

Corporate Greenwash: Do we forget too soon all the BS?The 2012 London Olympics, hosted in a stadium that IOC asserts is “as sustainable as it is stunning,” have brought unprecedented attention not just to the athletes competing for medals, but also to the corporate sponsors competing for air time. A number of tarnished reputations plague the corporate contestants. BP Global, Dow Chemical, and Rio Tinto top the list of what consumers may consider environmentally unfriendly Olympic sponsors. Thanks to a lively coalition of environmental activists, for a short while it was possible to vote on which of the three top contenders should win the “Greenwash Gold 2012” award. Rio Tinto brought home the gold.

But how long will the collective memory of Greenwash Gold 2012 last? If the shared memory of environmental abuse itself is any indicator, “not that long” may be the best answer. The iconic image of the oil-slicked pelican (or sea turtle, or tern, or plover) no longer airs during prime time, but BP’s post-spill “public service” ads, featuring standard greenwashing fodder, mostly certainly do.

Read More→

Is Ignorance Greenwashing? Home Depot Can’t Tell Customer About Its Own Recycling Program

Does this guy know about the recycling program?From a reader tip:

Most major retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, have electronics recycling programs for consumers to safely dispose of their electronics gadgets and appliances. Home Depot ostensibly offers one as well, but you might not know that if you talked with a Home Depot customer service representative.

A reader tip from John tells the following story:

John wanted to recycle an old microwave so he called Home Depot’s customer service department to get recycling information. John contacted one and then a second representative, neither one, John reports, had any idea of what to tell him.

John finally got an answer from Micaiah Holley from Home Depot’s Customer Support Center, informing John about their partnership with 1-800-Cleanup, a recycling hotline offered by Earth911. The problem is two out of three customer reps at Home Depot knew anything about it. At least that is John’s experience.

It may not rise to the level of full-blown greenwash, but how well a company, or any organization, disseminates information about its sustainability and environmental stewardship programs is a true reflection of how important those values are to that organization.

Image credit: The Lazy Environmentalist (image is not that of our tipper. Thanks John for the tip!)