The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico raises lots of questions about the power of greenwashing.
More than any other oil company, BP tied selling itself as an environmental leader . You can check it out on this television special promoting the company as a green leader.
BP television ads were focused on themes of biofuels, alternative energy and carbon footprints, closing with a green, flower-like logo and the slogan "Beyond petroleum."
But it was all a ruse, just greenwashing. As James Ridgeway writes in Mother Jones , BP was trashing the environment while it was being hailed as more green than other petroleum company. It manipulated the propane market and poured crude oil into the Arctic tundra.
Writing in Foreign Policy , Kate Sheppard says that BP's green campaign might have paid off in the short term but the spill has wiped out years of ad spending and highlighted how disingenuous much of that advertising was.
"Despite all BP has spent on rebranding, the company hasn't done nearly as much to move "beyond petroleum" as its campaign implies,'' she writes. "In fact, BP has been turning away from investments in nonfossil energy, last year cutting investment in alternative sources from $1.4 billion to $1 billion. Weeks before the spill, BP announced that it was shuttering its solar manufacturing plant in Maryland. The company brought in $73 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2010, but only about $700 million of its business was alternative energy sources like wind and solar. The company has also spent a lot of time and money convincing political leaders that offshore drilling is clean, safe, and environmentally friendly — while at the same time actually fighting against safety measures that might have prevented the horror in the Gulf."
The BP story is a warning for all of us about the power of greenwashing. And a reminder to be sceptical when companies try presenting themselves as environmentally friendly. That's not the way business works.
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