Rising out of the ashes of professional commentary on Deepwater Horizon, there's finally--at long last--a voice of reason. Yes, it's still a discussion focused on image, but it's something.
David Jones, power CEO of firm Havas, delivers his perspective on BP as a case-in-point of what he calls the decade of damage'--where greenwashing no longer cuts it. My favorite quote:
"I'm not saying the oil business is easy and if tomorrow we all had to live without oil we would be in serious trouble. But you don't have to change your logo to a flower and give everyone the impression that you press wild daisies for a living. That's one of the reasons why the backlash against them was so harsh."
Just to add some context to his discussion, however, here's his glowing take on Wal-Mart's achievements:
"It completely re-engineered its reputation in North America and became one of the most respected and admired companies in terms of what it was doing. A decade earlier, it had real [image] problems," he says. "The critical point was that it was genuine and it probably did more to change its supply chain and logistics in terms of sustainability than any major company has ever done."
Indeed, the sheer visibility and scale of Wal-Mart's environmental commitments has done practically more than anything else to change the American corporate landscape on sustainability. But Wal-Mart is still painfully missing major commitments to the social dimension of sustainability. This article still rings true, even 6 years later, analysing the extraordinary lengths to which Wal-Mart has gone to dominate American retail and, in doing so, sell its workers wretchedly short.
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