“Residents file lawsuit against major utility company for alleged deceptive practice: 'We need to be doing everything we can.'”
"This misinformation is being done at a moment when we see local governments really trying to take the lead."
Climate change is happening, and we can see it all around us with our own eyes. Global warming is creating record temperatures all over the world. Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, coral reefs are bleaching and dying, and weather patterns are changing. There are also more intense fires, floods, droughts, and storm events. It’s been a long time coming, but corporations and governments have purportedly began acknowledging action that must to be taken to address the problem. In this changing political and corporate environment, traditional suppliers of coal, oil, and gas, are under pressure to develop cleaner fuels and technologies.
As such, many carbon-based energy businesses are heavily advertising to send a message to the public they are fully cooperating and moving toward a shared goal of renewable energy. But are they really? As we have discovered, there is much misinformation and disinformation being distributed to the public. You may have heard the word “greenwashing” being used in conjunction with renewable energy. “Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound. Greenwashing involves making an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do.”
“In addition, greenwashing may occur when a company attempts to emphasize sustainability of a product to overshadow the company’s involvement in environmentally damaging practices. Performed through the use of environmental imagery, misleading labels, and hiding tradeoffs, greenwashing is a play on the term “whitewashing,” which means using false information to intentionally hide wrongdoing, error, or an unpleasant situation in an attempt to make it seem less bad than it is.”
“Corporate sustainability is an approach to conducting business that creates sustainable, long-term shareholder, employee, consumer, and societal value by pursuing responsible environmental, social, and economic (or governance) strategies.” It has “become a buzzword in companies big and small. Walmart Stores, Inc. (WMT), McDonald’s Corporation (MCD), and other large corporations have named sustainability as a key priority moving forward.”
A recent story making news in Vancouver focused on a lawsuit filed by Vancouver residents and a non-profit against FortisBC, a British Columbia power utility, “for duping the public into thinking the gas supplied to their homes was renewable.” Although this is a lawsuit in Canada, its outcome may be relevant in other countries as pressure mounts on companies struggling to meet carbon reduction targets around the world. In 2022, the International Energy Agency reported that oil and gas usage would have to decrease 75% to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 C by 2050.
I believe there must be many more of these lawsuits to expose greenwashing and put more public pressure on industries around the world. If the people of the world do not act together to make change, there will be little change. Power to the people!
Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/greenwashing.asp
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/staples-electronics-recycling-program- rewards/
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100515/three-pillars-corporate- sustainability.asp
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/bc-utility-deceived-public-over-renewable-gas-claims-lawsuit-8508959
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/burning-stove-266896/
