Green News for the week 08.27.08

Some groups claim that BayerCropScience knew one of its best-selling pesticides has killed millions of honeybees, reports the News & Observer. “A German prosecutor is investigating Werner Wenning, Bayer’s chairman, and Friedrich Berschauer, the head of Bayer CropScience, after critics alleged that they knowingly polluted the environment,” according to the N&O.

German beekeepers and consumer protection advocates filed the compliant that accuses Bayer of using Clothianidin even while knowing it may have hurt millions of honeybees. So far, Bayer CropScience has blamed the deaths on defective seed corn batches.

Also:
The Inspired Economist’s Chris Milton posts Sustainable Business’ top 20 sustainable businesses (which includes IBM and Chipotle Mexican Grill). Then he asks readers, “Are lists of companies like this helpful in promoting sustainable business practices, or do they simply show which companies have the slickest PR departments?” Also Sarah Lozanova investigates Bank of American’s green claims.

TreeHugger profiles Patagonia’s green business philosophy

College students have the same, or possibly less, access to sustainability-related education than they did in 2001, reports Time.

Denver radio hosts help convey the DNC’s green message.

Fiji Water is fighting back against Erica Schuetz’s Food & Water Watch blog post that cited a BBC program claiming that one-third of local Fijians have no access to clean drinking water (which I referenced in this week’s roundup).

Grace Kang, an associate in corporate communications at Fiji Water, sent me an e-mail yesterday saying that many of those claims were untrue.

“Reliable access to clean, safe drinking water is common throughout much of Fiji, but there are still some remote villages where infrastructure is lacking,” Kang said. “We’re currently funding projects through the Fiji Water Foundation to ensure that these communities are provided with a safe water supply.”

Among those she listed:

-    Providing water access to the villages that surround the company’s water source in the Yaqara Valley.
-    Fiji Water has partnered with the Rotary Club to fund the Pacific Water for Life Trust, which will provide the infrastructure, expertise and skills necessary to deliver sustainable water to more than 100 additional communities, schools, health centers and nursing stations throughout Fiji over the next two years.
-    Fiji Water provides thousands cases of water a year to local villages in Fiji who have been hit by cyclones or flash flooding to provide immediate access to clean, safe water.
-    She said the water Fiji bottles and ships is sourced from an isolated underground aquifer unsuitable for public use, so is unrelated to the cited problem.

“If we didn’t bottle the water the underground flow would simply run into the ocean and fewer people in Fiji would benefit from access to clean, safe water,” Kang added. “Rather than ‘exploiting the environment and people’ as Erica Schuetz claims, protecting the ecosystem of Fiji – which is our greatest resource – and supporting the local economy is very important to us. Fiji benefits from making its water available for export.”

Readers, any thoughts on this response?

For past PRWeek coverage on Fiji Water click here.

News for the week 08.21.08

Greenpeace and animator Mark Fiore have banded together to take on Kleenex’s new Wall*E themed Kleenex boxes.  The eco-group produced an animation parody that “highlights the biting irony of the world’s largest maker of disposable tissues, Kimberly-Clark, using a children’s movie with a strong environmental message to sell a product made of ‘virgin’ fiber clearcut from ancient forests and containing no recycled content,” according to its release.

Also:

The Economist wonders if water is the oil of the 21st century.

Fijians don’t have access to Fiji water, claims Food and Water Watch.

Ikea invests 50 million Euros in cleantech startups with the goal of eventually selling solar panels and other smart technology in its stores.

Green news for the week of 08.11.08
Even though Beijing has come under scrutiny for poor air standards during this year’s Olympics ceremonies, some PR help might be coming the city’s way. Two air quality experts have been tracking Beijing’s air  since the opening ceremony, and have deemed the quality “healthy,” reports NPR.

Also:

Some environmentalists are promoting the “conservation agriculture” label to distinguish organic produce from those grown around a no-till system, according to the Economist.

The Climate Change Adaptation Task Force urges NYC to make changes to adapt to climate change, the NY Times.

Walrus suggests a pervasive cover-up might be masking health and environmental risks associated with cell phone usage.