Greenwash+20 - Greenpeace

image
Greenpeace protested
outside the International
Chamber of Commerce
(ICC) building in 1995,
after a leaked document
revealed that the ICC,
with a small number of
powerful governments,
was trying to undermine
the Basel Convention
decision to ban exports
of hazardous wastes
from OECD to non-OECD
countries.
© GREENPEACE / ISABELLE ROUVILLOIS
In individual countries we can expect to see a growing
number of progressive business coalitions, who will
be challenging traditional business federations. In the
Netherlands, there is Groene Zaak, a Dutch Progressive
Business coalition, consisting of 120 members from banks
to food suppliers and pension funds, committed to making
their own value chains sustainable and encouraging
stronger regulation by the government 47 . In Switzerland,
there is Swiss Cleantech, whose mission is not only to
support clean tech businesses, but also to encourage and
support Switzerland to become a leading sustainability
country 48 . In Brazil, Ethos is a somewhat unusual business
group, as its members range from mining, cement
and paper companies to natural cosmetics, and yet it
has been challenging Brazil’s most powerful business
association FIESP on sustainability. For example, ahead
of the Copenhagen Climate conference in 2009, Ethos
was urging the Brazilian government to take more
leadership and to define climate targets – while offering
to cut emissions as business 49 . It has also taken action
against slave labour in Brazil and supported calls for zero
deforestation. And so forth.
That businesses have many different voices is contrary
to the ICC’s claim to be “the global voice of business.”
Business is not a monolith, but because the ICC has
become an official part of the UN process, other business
voices are drowned out.
Greenpeace is calling for a commitment to corporate
accountability and liability. At the Johannesburg Earth
Summit in 2002, governments acknowledged the need
for global rules for global corporations. At Rio 2012,
they should agree on the development of a global
instrument that ensures full liability for any social or
environmental damage global corporations cause.
Corporations must take full responsibility for their
supply chains.
16 Greenwash+20 How some powerful corporations are standing in the way of sustainable development