Greenwash: Don't be duped by bogus green business badges

Schemes that hand out badges to businesses which make lily-livered climate 'pledges' are greenwash. If these initiatives are to have any value at all, they need to be badges of actual endeavour, writes Fred Pearce

guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 27 2008 14.50 GMT

Going green is easy for companies today. It is free and, literally, a couple of clicks of a mouse away. Take the Prince of Wales's May Day network on climate change, part of his Business in the Community (BITC) programme.
The network allows corporations to use its "prestigious" logo on letterheads, business brochures, annual reports and wherever else they like. The logo, according to Business in the Community's website, indicates that the business is "committed to taking action on climate change".
Really? As reader Jeremy Green points out, in order to display it, you don't actually have to take any action at all, beyond a bit of carbon accountancy.
The website sounds tough. "Companies will only be eligible to use the logo if they commit to and fulfil pledges one and two, and report progress." So what are pledges one and two? One is to calculate your carbon footprint. The second is to report it "publicly or to business in the community". That's it.
Now, to be fair, the companies could under the subsequent pledges, "select a target and take action" to cut their emissions, encourage their employees to make cuts, "mobilise customers" and "work in partnership with suppliers to reduce emissions in the supply chain". But to become a member of the network and win that precious logo of green probity, none of that is required.
All they have to do is a few sums and send the result on the back of a postcard to BITC. They don't even have to make those calculations public. And nowhere does BITC tell us which companies have gone beyond the two initial "pledges".
So it is no great surprise that around 1,400 organisations have signed up. From Cardiff airport to Drax power station, from BP to Jaguar-Land Rover - frankly it is more a question of spotting who isn't on the list. I'd certainly welcome evidence from you on the extent of the "commitment" on these companies to fighting climate change.
BITC takes an open-door approach to environmental evangelism: entice the punters inside and then hope they'll become converts. Fair enough, perhaps. But that leaves the rest of us duped by the dubious badges of green probity.
It is only three years since Adnams, the admirable brewer, left the organisation, claiming that it was a "PR fig leaf". Adnams has since been enticed back into the May Day Network. Indeed it won a prize from the network this year for its commitment to the cause. But the mud of its departure clings.
These lily-livered climate "pledges" are greenwash. It is no longer good enough (if it ever was) for companies to be able to gain the imprimatur of an organisation like Business in the Community to be fighting climate change if they do not make public and verifiable commitments to actually cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
Diligent readers will remember that, in launching this column, I pointed out that the City of London Corporation offers a similar green accreditation service to banks and finance houses through its Climate Pledge. Again, companies are invited to sign up and use the pledge logo in order to be "recognised as exemplar sustainable businesses." Again there are no targets.
The corporation has since told me that "targets are not appropriate as each company is starting from a different point." I'm not sure why corporations cannot do what entire countries agreed to do under the Kyoto protocol. But nobody is saying each company should have identical targets. Just that, in return for being recognised as "exemplars", they should declare their emissions, make promises about cutting them and then be held to account in public for their progress.
Today, my charge of greenwash is not against the companies that sign up to these schemes. It is against the organisers of the schemes and they should change their rules.
In the months to come, this column will continue its audit of the auditors and, in its humble way, campaign to end these bogus green badges. Green accountancy is not enough. If the May Day Network logo and all the others are to have any value, they need to be badges of actual endeavour. I can't help thinking the Prince of Wales would probably agree.
• How many more green scams, cons and generous slices of wishful thinking are out there? Please send your examples of greenwash to greenwash@guardian.co.uk or add your comments below