June 11, 2007
Activist Worries That Cooperating With Corporate America Will Hurt Green Coffers
Environmentalists shouldn’t join any company’s environmental initiative, according to an article on AlterNet by Phil Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First. Instead, Mattera argues that human activists should be leading the effort to clean up the planet, and corporations should be made to follow their lead.
Mattera worries that there is a risk that the heightened level of collaboration between corporations and activists will undermine the justification for an independent environmental movement. “Why pay dues to a green group if its agenda is virtually identical to that of GE and DuPont?”
“It would behoove enviros to be more skeptical of corporate green claims and less eager to jump into bed with business,” Mattera writes. “It certainly makes sense to seek specific concessions from corporations and to offer moderate praise when they comply, but activists should maintain an arm’s-length relationship to business and not see themselves as partners.”
Stay Up-to-Date On Environmental Management, Energy & Sustainability News with EL's Free Daily Newsletter
Advertisers
from Compliance to Business Value >>


Alcoa Sustainability Report: 4.5% Drop in Water Intensity, but Landfilling up 10%
Reader Comments
There are no comments for this story.