Review: Green Inc. by Christine MacDonald
THE more sanctimonious arms of the environmental movement have been in need of this book for a long time. In a no-holds-barred insider account, Christine MacDonald tells the story of how the biggest perpetrators of public relations “greenwash” are often the greens themselves. At their worst, she argues, conservationists sell themselves as willing dupes and apologists for some of the most environmentally unfriendly corporations on the planet.
According to MacDonald, big money-spinning environmental groups like WWF, Conservation International (CI) and The Nature Conservancy are bankrolled by super-rich benefactors, and several of their boards feature executives from donor corporations. To keep the funds rolling in, compromises are inevitable.
For example, MacDonald shows us Conservation International cosying up to soya barons in Brazil, and environmental groups providing green cover as big-name retailers like Wal-Mart buy up the products of illegal logging.
The environmental organisations say this is all in a good cause, that these are necessary compromises in the wider quest to encourage green global capitalism. They have a point. Arguably what the largest and dirtiest corporations most need is a helping hand to discover how to turn a good profit while greening their operations and wrong-footing their rivals in the battle for the public’s affection. Who better than pro-environment professionals to show them how?
MacDonald’s case, persuasively made, is that too often the environment gets little in return. Donations to environmental groups buy a green patina for corporations that dulls and diffuses the demands of consumers and advocacy groups for a real corporate clean-up. Why is it, she asks, that six of the top 10 most polluting companies, as judged by the University of Massachusetts, “are major contributors to big conservation groups”?…