Friday, March 12, 2010

Green washers or world saviors?

Among large companies there is a trend towards “becoming greener”.
Right before the climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009, companies such as Coca- Cola, Panasonic, Siemens and RWE presented themselves as green saviors. McDonald's added the color green into the corporate logo, Walmart demands information on fuel consumption and raw material extraction from its suppliers.
But how serious are companies really? Will they save the world in spite of the failed climate conference? Or is it all just "green washing" (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing) - PR/advertising, that aims to give the company an environmental image?
We may hope that there is at least a bit of truth behind the expensive, large-scale advertising campaigns.
But how much green washing do consumers tolerate? Are these companies taken seriously by consumers, when all of a sudden so many companies act “green”?
A good source of information to find out which campaigns are pure marketing tricks and what companies actually do something for the climate and the environment, is the blog www.klima-luegendetektor.de by Toralf Staud. Also, the website www.greenwashingindex.com gives information about which companies are actually saving the world.
If you speak German, you can learn more about green washing on the website of the environmental organization BUND Southern Upper Rhine: http://vorort.bund.net/suedlicher-oberrhein/idx-greenwash.html.

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