Video Greenwash of the Week: Virgin Air’s Biofueled 747

We decided to do something a little different with this greenwash of the week: video! Here’s our own Robin Beck on the Virgin Air biofuel greenwash:

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Greenwash of the Week: Coal industry buys off CNN debates

Coming to us via Think Progress: In Democratic presidential debate last night, CNN once again failed to ask any questions about global warming. Perhaps not surprisingly, last night’s debate was sponsored by the coal front group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC). Considering that this is an ongoing greenwash and a blatant attempt to buy [...]

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Greenwash of the Week: Bank of America Offset Credit Card

This week Bank of America subsidiary MBNA launched their new Eco-Logique MasterCard credit card for Canadian consumers. What makes the new card so special? Well, everytime you make a purchase you earn points, but instead of using the points to get airline tickets or electronics, MBNA buys carbon offsets. The more stuff you buy, the [...]

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Greenwash of the Week: Chevron video game urges smart energy planning–like burning lots of oil.

Thanks to the good ole San Francisco Chronicle for once again calling my attention to an oil company just begging to win our Greenwash of the Week award. Alright, Chevron, your new online video game Energyville is our big winner. The basic idea is that they give you city and you get to decide how [...]

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Greenwash of the Week: Exelon’s nuclear astro-turfing

This week’s greenwash is a double-whammy: greenwash meets astro-turf. If you’re not familiar with that last term, it refers to a “grassroots” organization that’s actually the phony creation of a powerful, moneyed interest group. As reported by the good people over at PR Watch and the Asbury Park Press, Exelon, a New Jersey nuclear power [...]

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Greenwash of the Week: BP says coal stops global warming

BP . . . bp . . . bP? However they capitalize it, BP is the winner of our nearly-weekly “Greenwash of the Week” award. Why? 1. Because they put a revolting ad in my local paper today explaining that thanks to to BP we can all look forward to solving global warming by using [...]

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Greenwash of the Week: Subaru’s wildlife parking lot

So we’re starting a new feature on the Understory: the Greenwash of the Week. If you’re not familiar with the term, which comes from “whitewash,” it refers to companies trying to make their products or activities appear environmentally friendly even when they are not. It didn’t take long for corporate PR departments to figure out [...]

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