Business-Managed Democracy

• Introduction

• Green Consumerism

• Public Relations

• Front Groups

• Wise Use Movement

• Think Tanks

• Global Warming

• SLAPPs

• Media

• Environmentalists
• Sustainable Dev.
  • Language
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  • Consensus vs Change
• Spectrum
  • Activism
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  • Greenpeace
  • EDF
• Institutionalisation
• Funding
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  • Canvassing
• Business Partners
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  • Revolving Door
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• Free Market Env.
  • Nature Conservancy
  • Multiple Use
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  • EDF
  • Emissions Trading
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• References


 

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Business-Managed Environment

Business Connections

Increasingly business people are seeing the advantages of working out deals with environmental groups. James Harris, a vice president of  Hill and Knowlton and also a member of the Sierra Club’s national Public Affairs Advisory Committee put it this way:

For the environmental groups, working with corporations offers a ready source of funds and a chance to influence their behaviour. For corporations, environmental groups offer the opportunity to obtain positive publicity and gain access to group members, who tend to be better educated and more affluent than the general public. They also provide credibility, which can be particularly valuable...In political coalitions, environmental groups can provide substantial clout, with their large memberships and lobbying expertise.

Harris said that all of the 10 largest US groups apart from Greenpeace are willing to cooperate with corporations and he lists the various forms such cooperation can take:

• donations to environmental groups
• sponsorships for specific projects the group is undertaking in return for publicity and allowing the company to use its logo
• technical advice from environmental groups on how the company can introduce environmental reforms
• political coalitions and
• workplace fundraising where corporations allow environmentalists to collect donations from employees.

For Linda Siddall, Director  of Friends of the Earth, Hong Kong corporate sponsorship is one way to meet environmental goals:

In Hong Kong we take the view that, while confrontation may have been the only posture available to environmentalists in the 1970s, times are changing and so too are industrial attitudes. We have therefore sought to establish a relationship with industry which is suited to the present... we try to establish a working relationship so as to better understand their point of view, and hopefully influence them to better understand and adopt ours. Accepting sponsorship is one tool in this strategy.
We need to harness the organisational and financial resources of industry on our side.

In addition many of the larger environmental groups have millions of dollars invested in the share market including WWF, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which means they have an interest in ensuring that those corporations whose stocks they own continue to increase share value.