greenwash

Scientific research and conservation need more cash. That’s sadly usually true. It’s especially the case in the Antarctic where research is expensive but absolutely essential given the massive environmental changes happening there.

But although new streams of funding should welcomed for Antarctic research, it’s also important to question where that funding comes from. After all, there’s just a sliver of a chance that some seemingly good PR is actually a mind-bogglingly cynical act of greenwashing.

Oh, this is marvellous. A new commercial for Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has surfaced which, like their previous efforts, is a lesson in how to make a bad company seem downright satanic. Hats off then to Allyn Media for a beautifully shot, if completely fabricated, video.

Our colleagues in the US have been blogging regularly about the ongoing disaster in the gulf and Greenpeace's involvement in the response to the oil spill. Here, Mike Gaworecki sheds some light on the clean-up operation BP has been carrying out on its image.

There's no way to clean up an oil spill. We've seen this time and again - in Alaska's Prince William Sound, for instance, where oil from the Exxon Valdez spill is still having an impact on local ecosystems. Corporations like Exxon or BP that find themselves responsible for an oil spill - or, as was the case for Exxon and now is the case for BP, an oil disaster - are really left with only one option to handle the problem: public relations, damage control and fierce lobbying.

Exciting footage just in from the London HQ of international energy giant BP. After discovering internal company documents which reveal that the company, which has been stying itself 'Beyond Petroleum', is actually still spending 93 per cent of its budget on oil and gas extraction, we sent a crack team of smartly dressed greenwash-busters to locate BP boss Tony Hayward and present him with our coveted Emerald Paintbrush award for this year's most outstandingly brazen piece of greenwash.

Find out how they got on below:

But remember folks, this is just the tip of the greenwash-berg. With so many companies desperate to trumpet their 'green' credentials, even if the reality is very different, there are bound to be many more potential award winners out there. So if you know of, or work for, one of them, be sure and drop us a line so we can consider them for furture Emerald Paintbrush presentations...

The tension built as the judges deliberated. Then at last the results were were all in and - ta-da! It was time to announce the winner of the first annual Greenpeace 'Emerald Paintbrush' award for greenwashing above and beyond the call of duty. Cue a quick roll on the drums, and step forward into the spotlight - BP!

The energy corporation with an income larger than most of the world's nation states has spent a lot of time and money restyling itself as being 'Beyond Petroleum' in recent years, but a trawl through their accounts quickly reveals just how empty that assertion really is - 'Back to Petroleum', more like it.