Business Ethics : Activists

The Advertising Standards Authority's (ASA's) crackdown on misleading green ads claimed another victim today after easyJet was ordered to change an advert claiming it emits 22 per cent less carbon dioxide than traditional rivals.

 Click here to read more on EasyJet

More than 300 people marched from downtown Point Richmond to the Chevron refinery to protest the company they say is profiting from the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Twenty-four demonstrators were arrested for trespassing late after removing a police barricade, entering refinery property and linking arms, said Lt. Mark Gagan, a Richmond police spokesman. The protesters were marching against the war in Iraq, as well as a proposal to upgrade the refinery's processing capability. They accused Chevron of profiteering from the oil obtained by the U.S. invasion, which has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

Chevron spokeswoman Camille Priselac said that operations at the refinery were not disrupted by the protests and that alternative means existed for vehicles needing to enter and leave the facility.

The protest was co-sponsored by Direct Action to Stop the War, Greenaction, West County Toxics Coalition, Amazon Watch, Richmond Progressive Alliance, Richmond Greens, Community Health Initiative, Communities for a Better Environment, Global Exchange and Rainforest Action Network.

The peace group CODEPINK: Women for Peace is calling upon the U.S military to debar Halliburton/KBR from future contracts in Iraq due to its failure to protect its women contractors and for new measures to be taken to protect female contractors in Iraq.

Treehugger has a great article called “The Semiotics of Greenwashing,” featuring children and “hippie images” to sell the coal, auto, and oil industries to consumers. Would almost be funny, if it wasn’t so wrong. Click here to read.

McDonald’s has ended its controversial report card advertising in Seminole County, Florida. A campaign led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and nearly two-thousand parent complaints helped to end the program. Children in kindergarten through fifth-grade had been receiving their report cards in envelopes adorned with Ronald McDonald promising a free Happy Meal to students with good grades, behavior, or attendance.

CCFC’s director Dr. Susan Linn: “This is a good day for parents and children in Seminole County and anyone who believes that corporations should not prey on children in schools.  We are pleased that McDonald’s is listening to parents all over the country who believe that report cards should not be commercialized.” 

An anti-whaling group vowed to resume harassing Japanese whalers as two of its activists were returned to their protest ship after being detained on board a harpoon vessel. The two protesters, held aboard the Japanese whaler in Antarctic waters for two days, were handed over to an Australian customs vessel and later returned to their Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship.

Australian Benjamin Potts said the Japanese crew had tried to throw him overboard when he and fellow activist, Briton Giles Lane, 35, clambered onto the harpoon ship to protest Japan's whaling program during a high seas chase. The Japanese whaling fleet is on its annual hunt in the icy Antarctic waters. Japan exploits a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling to kill the animals for what it calls scientific research, while admitting the meat from the hunt ends up on dinner plates.

Tyson Foods Inc. said it will investigate allegations by the animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that chickens were abused and tortured at two of its chicken processing plants. PETA said an undercover investigator for the group had video documentation of workers throwing live chickens, hitting them with fists, and urinating in an area where the live birds were shackled.

Tyson said it is cooperating with USDA's investigation of the matter. The plants were in Cumming, Georgia, and Union City, Tennessee.

Pushing to keep big corporations honest, labor groups regularly smuggle photographs, videos, pay stubs, shipping records and other evidence out of factories that they say violate local law and international worker standards. In 2007, factories that supplied more than a dozen corporations, including Wal-Mart, Disney and Dell, were accused of unfair labor practices, including using child labor, forcing employees to work 16-hour days on fast-moving assembly lines, and paying workers less than minimum wage. (Minimum wage in this part of China is about 55 cents an hour.)

In recent weeks, a flood of reports detailing labor abuse have been released, at a time when China is still coping with last year’s wave of product safety recalls of goods made in China, and as it tries to change workplace rules with a new labor law that took effect on Jan. 1.

No company has come under as harsh a spotlight as Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, which sourced about $9 billion in goods from China in 2006, everything from hammers and toys to high-definition televisions. In December, two NGOs, documented what they said were abuse and labor violations at 15 factories that produce or supply goods for Wal-Mart — including the use of child labor at Huanya Gifts, a factory here in Guangzhou that makes Christmas tree ornaments. To read the entire article, please click here

Forest Ethics and its Catalog Cutdown campaign have released its annual Naughty and Nice list, which grades catalog senders on environmental paper practices. The group also continued its campaign against Sears by staging protests at more than 70 Sears stores across North America. The protesters dressed as reindeer and delivered lumps of coal in response to what Forest Ethics calls “Sears’ refusal to abandon the outdated and destructive paper policies of the past.”

The group says that activists sang “I saw Sears Cut Trees for Catalogs” (to the tune of “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus”), and unveiled a banner reading “Sears has been Naughty to the Environment.”

In its Naughty and Nice list, 21 companies were evaluated according to four criteria: whether or not endangered forests are cut to produce the company’s catalogs; whether the company uses Forest Stewardship Council Certified paper; the amount of post-consumer recycled content in the company’s catalogs; and the extent of the company’s efforts to reduce overall paper consumption.

Patagonia, Williams-Sonoma, Dell, Timberland, Crate & Barrel, REI, L.L. Bean, and J. Crew ended up on the nice list. JC Penney, Macy’s/Bloomingdales, and PC Mall made the checking twice list. Neiman Marcus, Talbots/J. Jill, OfficeMax, Lands’ End, Eddie Bauer, School Specialty, Sharper Image, Spiegel, and Sears follow up on the naughty list.

Fueled by Burger King’s recent announcement that it's starting to switch to cage-free eggs, the Humane Society USHardee's and Carl's Jr. are starting to move away from eggs from caged hens, according to HSUS—leaving Wendy’s open to criticism.

has urged Wendy's to also make the same switch. In August, after months of dialogue with the company, the HSUS launched a campaign publicly asking Wendy's to stop defending its exclusive use of eggs from caged hens. Tens of thousands of people have contacted Wendy's and many are leafleting outside its restaurants. Major media outlets have run print and radio ads from the HSUS. In a creative twist, people named Wendy—including actress Wendie Malick—are asking Wendy's to stop tarnishing their names by its current practice