PHA-Exchange> Activist Resigns as McDonald's Takes 'Green' Seat

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From: "UNNIKRISHNAN PV (Dr)" <unnikru at yahoo.com>

Activist Resigns as McDonald's Takes 'Green' Seat   (Inter Press Service)

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Jun 3 (IPS) - The recent appointment of fast food giant
McDonald's to the advisory board of an environmental group has drawn
accusations of ''green washing'' from environmentalists and led one board
member to resign in protest. But both the company and the group strongly
deny the accusations.

Paul Hawken, a well-known activist and environmentalist respected for his
strong opposition to corporate globalisation, resigned two weeks ago from
the Green Business Network (GBN), a Washington-based non-governmental
organisation (NGO) that says it is working to make businesses adopt better
environmental practices.

"McDonald's doesn't have the expertise, the credibility or the values to be
on the steering committee of a green business," Hawken, a board member since
the NGO started its operation in 2000, told IPS in an interview.

Hawken and many other activists criticise the Illinois-based company for
offering children unhealthy food that contains too much fat and sugar. They
refer to scientific research that links fast food to childhood obesity and
Type 2 diabetes.

The critics charge that McDonald's gets involved with green NGOs to win them
over to its side so that its business model will not be changed or
challenged.

''We can welcome any supply chain improvements McDonald's engenders, without
anointing them with a green label,'' Hawken, author of 'The Ecology of
Commerce' and 'Natural Capitalism', said in his resignation letter.

GBN is part of the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation
and operates its main activity, the greenbiz.com website, from Oakland in
the state of California.

The site offers companies advice on how to become environmentally and
socially friendly. On the GBN advisory board sit firms including Coca Cola,
International Paper, AT&T, and Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark. But Hawken says
that McDonald's stands out.

Many nutritionists, green groups and environmentalists are angry at
McDonald's, which has 30,000 restaurants in 121 countries, for, among many
reasons, targeting children and adults alike with massive advertisement
campaigns for unhealthy food.

The company, which serves some 46 million people daily around the world,
spends about two billion U.S. dollars a year creating advertising designed
to get children hooked on fatty and sugary meals, they say.

Hawken's resignation quickly became news among anti-globalisation activists,
who say they are worried that some groups and companies are trying to
exploit the space created by years of hard lobbying from environmentalists
and public health activists.

But both McDonald's and GBN strongly deny the ''green washing'' accusations.
''McDonald's contributes money to many groups in this age of imploding
foundations,''.

''They get in and then use the names (of green groups) backwards in their
social responsibility reports; they used all the organisations that they
contributed money to.''

The company issued its inaugural Social Responsibility Report last year with
much fanfare.