Getting beyond bottled water, the Kony 2012 viral video and climate leadership rewarded

Climate change leadership

The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced the 2012 winners of its annual Climate Leadership Awards, which honour companies, organisations and individuals who have voluntarily committed to cutting their companies’ carbon emissions.

The awards are divided into five categories. The Excellence in GHG Management (Goal Setting) Award recognises businesses that publicly report and verify their greenhouse gas inventories and set aggressive emissions cuts. This year’s winners were Avaya, Bentley Prince Street, Campbell Soup Company, Ford Motor Company, Gap and Ingersoll Rand.

The Excellence in GHG Management (Goal Achievement) Award is nearly identical, but recognises companies that have achieved aggressive GHG reductions. The 10 winners include Campbell Soup Company, Casella Waste Systems, Conservation Services Group, Cummins, Fairchild Semiconductor, Genzyme, Hasbro, Intel, International Paper and SC Johnson.

IBM and San Diego Gas & Electric took the Organizational Leadership Award for exemplary leadership fighting climate change and for engaging colleagues, competitors, and their value chains.

The Supply Chain Leadership Award is for companies with rigorous emissions reduction goals that are tackling emissions in their value chains. It was awarded to the Port of Los Angeles, SAP and UPS. And lastly, the Individual Leadership Award went to the director of customer energy efficiency and solar at Southern California Edison.

To qualify, corporations must have annual revenue of more than $100m or, for government bodies and organisations, an annual budget of more than $100m.

The awards are led by the EPA, the Climate Registry, the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions, and the Association of Climate Change Officers.

Bottled water gets the boot

More than 140 cities in six states, along with 90 American universities, have cut bottled water spending. And that’s not to mention the many businesses and individuals who’ve also joined Corporate Accountability International’s (CAI) Think Outside the Bottle Campaign.

The campaign challenges the $22bn bottled water industry by asking public officials, restaurants, campuses, celebs and everyone else to stop buying bottled water, and advocate for more public funding for public water systems.

Though the campaign was launched as long ago as 2006 it’s picked up steam due to growing campus activity, with students and non-profit groups calling on universities to ban bottled water and offer sustainable alternatives, such as reusable bottles and refill stations.

According to campaign director Kristin Urquiza, CAI is also calling on Coke, Nestlé and Pepsi to disclose their water sources, publicly report on bottled water quality, and not threaten local control of water when operating bottled water plants.

Additionally, CAI will release a report on the World Bank, calling on the international institution to divest from global private water projects which, Urquiza says, are not sound investments and favour corporate profit over the human right to water. This results in labour cuts, higher local water costs and lack of infrastructure investment.

“The Think Outside the Bottle campaign will put pressure on corporations as long as they are continuing to seek to control water, a public resource, in order to profit from its sale at the expense of public health and the environment around the world,” Urquiza says.

Kony campaign captures global attention and critics

More than 100 million people have seen the Kony 2012 viral video, created by US non-profit group Invisible Children (IC), which has garnered equal measures of praise and criticism since its launch in February.

The Kony 2012 campaign has three key objectives: make the world aware of the Ugandan militia the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, and their 20 years of crimes against humanity in east and central Africa; galvanise viewers to support campaigns to stop the LRA and protect civilians; and institute relief programmes in LRA-affected areas.

In just two weeks, YouTube views of the video spiked to 82m, received 72,000 Facebook likes and prompted 2m tweets. It is the fastest growing viral video ever.

But there are some vocal critics, who say the video simplifies a complex political issue and dilutes it for an internet audience; that the non-profit group has a poor two-start Charity Navigator rating; and that IC misrepresents its allocation of funds.

IC’s founders subsequently posted a thorough statement and video on its website addressing the concerns. IC says it spends roughly one third of its funding on each of the three goals of documentation, advocacy and aid, which, it says makes IC unique and effective. 

The group is also independently audited annually, and publishes its financial statements on its website. In 2011 IC spent 80.5% on programmes, 16.2% on management costs and 3.2% on direct fundraising.

“We have never claimed a desire to ‘save Africa’ but, instead, an intent to inspire western youth to ‘do more than just watch,’” IC says in its response. “And in central Africa, [we] focus on locally led long-term development programmes that enable children to take responsibility for their own futures and the futures of their countries.”



Related Reads

comments powered by Disqus