Greenpeace Gives BP First Annual Greenwashing Award [Video]

BP, which has attempted to rebrand itself as “Beyond Petroleum” in recent years, was awarded Greenpeace’s first annual Emerald Paintbrush award for their attempts at greenwashed advertising campaigns in 2008.

To no one’s surprise, when two activists showed up to BP’s UK headquarters with green paintbrush in hand, they were quickly escorted out of the building. But this didn’t stop the formally-dressed protesters from announcing the award outside the building.

The company’s advertising campaigns have focused on alternative-energy, while in reality such technologies make up very little of their business. They used slogans like “from the earth to the sun, and everything in between” and “the best way out of the energy fix is an energy mix” to portray themselves as the good guys.

According to internal documents, 93 percent of its BP’s funds go towards the oil, gas and other fossil fuel production. In contrast, solar power was given 1.39 percent and wind 2.79 percent.

Photo Credit: Padraic on Flickr under Creative Commons license.