6.01.2010

Gem of the day


Fun Googling of oil companies has unearthed another temple to incremental innovation. Here lieth Total's initiative, Total Ecosolutions, which actually reproduces word for word the terminology of incremental innovation:

"Leveraging innovation to serve continuous improvement, the Total Ecosolutions program is aimed at developing products and services to help our customers — both businesses and consumers — to reduce their energy use and their environmental footprint."

Good times. And how do they salute the progress of their tepid project? Ah yes, with the classic [ab]use of an analogy to an emissions reduction achievement that didn't actually occur:

"Our estimates show that using the 13 Total Ecosolutions products and services instead of the reference products and services would avoid carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of 500,000 metric tons a year. That works out the same as emissions from 160,000 vehicles in a year."

And so, with the help of these 13 wondrous products and services, all of which would happily live in the pages of any Don DeLillo novel--chainsaw oils, water-based adhesives or the foreboding'Lumicene® polypropylene', anyone?--Total takes some appropriately small steps towards sustainable development. Appropriate, that is, for a company whose core business strategy is fundamentally unsustainable.

More updates on some of Total's more high-profile climate change campaigns to come.

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