And the winners of the Pinocchio Awards for Sustainable Development are ...Friends of the Earth awarded Tuesday 16 December at the Warehouse in Paris Pinocchio Awards for Sustainable Development 2008, three companies among the 12 nominated for practices against the sustainable development, or abusive communication campaigns. On the basis of concrete cases in Europe or in the countries of the South, more than 4100 citizens elected this year two winners:
Louis Dreyfus (human rights) and Areva (environment and greenwashing).The concepts of sustainable development and corporate social and environmental responsibility have been key advances in recent years. However, in the absence of a clear and binding legal framework, they have often been salvaged by companies that, by emptying their meaning, use them to enhance their image among citizens, shareholders and policy makers.
It is to denounce this situation that the Friends of the Earth awarded Tuesday 16 December in Paris three Pinocchio awards for sustainable development, in the categories "environment", "human rights", and "greenwashing". These awards are based on twelve concrete cases in the South or in Europe, particularly revealing the double discourse of companies that often present themselves as irreproachable, but whose impacts of the activities are actually much more negative.
In the category "Human Rights", the Pinocchio prize was awarded to the group Louis Dreyfus, the second largest producer of agroethanol and sugar in Brazil. After exploiting indigenous Guarani populations in conditions close to slavery, his recent decision to automate the sugarcane harvest will lead to more than 10 000 layoffs. This example recalls how the development of agrofuels, useless in terms of the fight against global warming, also represents a real social and economic threat to the countries of the South.
In the "Environment" category, the nuclear giant AREVA has been awarded a Pinocchio prize for the serious radioactive pollution that occurred at the beginning of July at the French site of Tricastin (Drôme), following what the authorities described as a "series". dysfunctions and human negligence ". These events are a reminder of how dangerous nuclear energy is, despite what Areva, supported by many politicians, wants to make citizens believe.
Finally, in the "Greenwashing" category, AREVA also won the Pinocchio 2008 award for its slogan "Our energies have a future, a future without CO2". Despite the group's attempts to present nuclear as a clean and positive solution to global warming, its record in this area remains far behind renewable energies, whether in terms of efficiency or financial cost, and permanent omission in its advertising of specific nuclear risks (waste, leaks, dismantling, etc.) scandalizes more than one citizen.
For Gwenael Wasse, Campaigner for Environmental and Social Responsibility at Friends of the Earth, "This first Pinocchio Awards was a great success, with more than 4000 votes in a matter of weeks. This shows that citizens are not fooled by corporate rhetoric when they present themselves as paragons of virtue. It is now necessary for the public authorities to legislate! ".
According to Sébastien Godinot, campaign coordinator, "Citizens no longer tolerate companies' verbiage about CSR. This is topical: the repeated financial scandals also illustrate, in the financial sector, the irresponsibility of large companies. The legislator must give a clear, precise and binding framework of environmental and social reporting to companies, in the same logic as the accounting standards, and link the legal responsibility of the parent company to all its subsidiaries in environmental and social matters. These tools are imperative in particular to put an end to the almost total impunity of large French companies in the South. "
Results of detailed category voting are available on the website
www.prix-pinocchio.orgThank you all for voting, and for supporting Friends of the Earth in this action, the first edition of which is already a success!
More than ever, we depend on you to defend our values of protection of people and the environment with the public authorities.
We look forward to seeing you next year for the 2009 Pinocchio Awards for Sustainable Development; until then do not hesitate to contact us to propose new nominations of French companies!
Sincerely,
The team of Friends of the Earth France
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