100 Companies No Environmentalist Should Ever Support
If you’re worried about environmental issues, you’re probably buying organic products, reducing your fuel consumption, and making your life as efficient as possible. But have you considered how you may be supporting companies that negate all of your hard work? Take a look at this list of offenders and make sure you’re not contributing to their assault of the environment.
Oil & Chemical
Most of us know that oil and chemical companies are generally more pollutive than not, but these few in particular stand out.
- Greka Oil & Gas, Inc.: Greka is a small producer in California, but is a major polluter because of broken equipment.
- BP: To many, “BP” stands for “Bad Pollution.” The company has been targeted by multiple groups for its environmental violations.
- Shell: Shell is at the helm of Russia’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project that is an environmental hazard, primarily due to its threat of the endangered western gray whale.
- Valero Energy: Based in San Antonio, Texas, Valero seems to not mind polluting at home. Among other offenses in Texas and beyond, the company is responsible for a number of injuries following a gas leak in Port Arthur, Texas.
- Chevron: Among many other health and environmental health violations, Chevron is responsible for up to 95 toxic sites that must be cleaned up.
- Amerada Hess: Amerada Hess plans to build a large liquified natural gas terminal in a populated area of Massachusetts. The plant is being criticized for potential terrorist threats as well as an impact on the local environment and waterways.
- Exxon: Exxon’s most recent shareholder meeting uncovered the company’s unwillingness to become environmentally friendly. Exxon is estimated to produce more than twice the pollution of countries such as Norway.
- Sunoco: Sunoco has used gas additive MTBE, which makes gasoline burn cleaner, but has been labeled as a possible carcinogen.
- DuPont: DuPont is responsible for the creation of toxic and potentially deadly Teflon, and has been concealing toxicity information about the product for the past 20 years. Additionally, DuPont has 103 toxic waste sites, only 16 of which have been cleaned up. The Political Economy Research Institute named DuPont as its number one worst polluter in the Toxic 100.
- Dow: Dow has purchased Union Carbide, a company responsible for a catastrophic chemical spill in Bhopal, India, and has yet to clean up the mess.
Energy
Your local energy company just might be ruining the environment in your community and all over the world.
- American Electric Power: This firm’s coal strategy is to burn it until someone makes them stop.
- Peabody Energy: Peabody Energy is the world’s largest coal producer, and their plants have emitted hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic pollution into the atmosphere. Additionally, the company has been sniping the water source of Hopi and Navajo tribes in Arizona in order to operate a coal slurry pipeline.
- Florida Power and Light: Florida’s power company charged customers extra to develop alternative power sources, but spent less than a quarter of it that way, the rest going to marketing and administrative costs.
- Sempra Energy: Many of Sempra’s plant developments have been either protested or criticized for toxic outputs
- Dominion: Dominion’s Brayton Point Station, a coal-fired plant, has been at the top of a list of the ten dirties power plants in the Northeast.
- Xcel Energy: Xcel has 7 coal-burning power plants that as a whole release more carbon dioxide than any other source in Colorado. They’re in the process of building another one that would add over 100 pounds of mercury into the environment every year for at least 50 years, along with 6 million tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
Retail
The places where you shop and the companies you buy products from can have a profound impact on the environment.
- Tesco: Although this European supermarket is trying to improve its environmental image, it still has a long way to go.
- Colgate-Palmolive: This company is responsible for hazardous waste in New Jersey.
- OfficeMax: OfficeMax is selective about their printer cartridge recycling program.
- J. Crew: One of J. Crew’s suppliers in China has been fined $1.4 million for discharging illegal waste over the past two years, releasing over ten million tons.
- Home Depot: Home Depot is criticized for carrying almost no non-toxic, poison-free lawn and garden products.
- Disney: Disney has announced plans to create incredibly wasteful disposable rental DVDs that are designed to “self-destruct” after 48 hours.
- L.L. Bean: L.L. Bean has sold clothing sold with a carcinogenic synthetic pesticide designed to repel pests.
- Canon USA: Canon is another shipping offender, sending at least one customer a chip smaller than a dime in an oversized box full of packaging.
- Kmart: Kmart sold Martha Stewart outdoor furniture made of an endangered hardwood in Sears stores.
- Mattel: Mattel has lobbied against legislation to prevent toxic toys.
- Lowe’s: Just like Home Depot, Lowe’s is criticized for failing to make a variety of non-toxic and poison-free lawn and garden products available.
- Macy’s: Macy’s forces customers to take plastic bags with purchases.
- Clorox: Clorox’s former factory in Oakland is heavily contaminated with mercury.
- VF: VF Corporation has made minimal steps to reduce its impact on global warming, but offers no other positive steps.
- NewEgg: This electronics website has terribly wasteful shipping.
- Unilever: Unilever is responsible for a number of serious water pollution cases, including a leak of 50 tonnes of concentrated sulphuric acid into sewage systems.
- Costco: Costco constructed a store on top of wetlands that were previously used to hold and filter storm water, as well as provide a transportation corridor for 100 species of animals.
- Borders: Just like Macy’s, Borders has a problem with letting customers leave without bags.
- International Paper: This huge pulp and paper company has significant liability at 46 toxic sites that need to be cleaned up. International Paper has been found to release more than 35 million pounds of toxic compounds into the air each year.
- Proctor and Gamble: In 1991, P&G was criticized for polluting the Fenholloway River in Florida with up to 50 million gallons of cellulose plant waste water every day. They’re also frequently accused of performing unneccessary testing on animals.
- WalMart: Although WalMart has pledged, and followed through on, large steps towards more responsible business, they still fail when it comes to inefficient shipping from WalMart.com.
- Jones Apparel: Jones Apparel has not begun to measure or reduce its company impact.
Health & Beauty
These household names are also synonymous with toxicity.
- Alberto-Culver: This producer of personal care and household products produces unhealthy chemicals and potential carcinogens. The company has also been cited for unlawful toxic dumping.
- Johnson & Johnson: Johnson & Johnson has made numerous products that contain PVC plastic in their packaging.
- Estée Lauder: In 2004, Estée Lauder was cited as a responsible party in lawsuits involving hazardous waste in landfills.
- Glaxo Smith Kline: In the 80s, Glaxo Smith Kline put out a toxic spinal x-ray contrast medium that is known to cause incurable inflammation and nerve atrophy. The company is also the proud owner of a chemical plant in Ulverston, one of the most carcinogenic polluters in the United Kingdom.
Technology
The companies you buy your computer, TV, and cell phone from may all be responsible for inflicting environmental damage.
- Microsoft: This company is trying to phase out toxic chemicals, but is terrible when it comes to e-waste.
- Google: This company that pledges to not be evil consumed more power in 2006 than American televisions.
- Fujitsu Siemens: This company scored poorly on e-waste and energy.
- Nintendo: Last year, Nintendo got a score of zero out of ten from Greenpeace because of its policies and practices on chemicals and takeback of products.
- Acer: Acer has earned itself a spot in Greenpeace’s E-Waste Hall of Shame, as they do not take back and recycle their products. They also continue to sell products that contain toxic materials.
- LG: LG gets zero energy points from Greenpeace.
- HP: HP laptops contain some of the highest levels of toxic contanimation, and materials from HP products often end up in toxic cyber waste.
- IBM: IBM is responsible for 28 toxic chemical sites that are dangerous to human health. They have only successfully cleaned up 2 of these sites.
- Phillips: Greenpeace gave Phillips a zero score on e-waste.
- Gateway: On the 2005 Computer Report Card, Gateway was in a four-way tie for the lowest score because of their recycling, disposal, and materials policies.
- Sanyo: Local drinking wells around a Sanyo facility in Tijuana are contaminated with high levels of nickel. The company has also been penalized for making false claims about the amount of energy created by its renewable energy systems.
Transportation
Check up on your car’s manufacturer and consider their impact on the environment.
- General Motors: GM’s CEO Bob Lutz thinks that global warming is “a crock.”
- Goodyear: Goodyear was a part of dumping chemical and oil-based waste at a site near Crosby, Texas.
- Chrysler: This company is a major contributor to carbon emissions, and has had to pay a $95 million settlement over defective emissions controls on some of its vehicles.
- Boeing: Boeing has been found responsible for two heavily contaminated sites in Washington, as well as employee exposure to radiation and hazardous waste.
- Ford: Although Ford has made great strides in producing more efficient vehicles, the company’s US market top seller still remains the F150, which boasts a combined fuel economy of only 15 miles per gallon.
- Firestone: Firestone has been highly criticized or destruction of humanity and the environment on its rubber plantation in Liberia.
- Toyota: Although Toyota has a number of fuel efficient vehicles, the company has actively lobbied against increasing fuel-efficiency standards, and has opposed “clean cars” legislation in many states.
- Nissan: Like Toyota, Nissan has used its corporate power to block emissions legislation, although it has an overall efficient vehicle fleet.
Finance
These banks and institutions use their substantial buying power to support projects that are disastrous for the environment.
- Bank of America: Bank of America is one of the largest investors in coal, coal fired power, and surface coal mining.
- Citigroup: Citigroup has been criticized or being a part of several projects that are damaging to the Amazon River basin, oil pipelines in Venezuela, and Indonesian palm plantations.
- Wachovia: Just like Bank of America, Wachovia is involved in coal and coal fired power.
- Munich Re: Munich Re was one of the first insurance companies to increase rates in preparation for global warming.
- Allstate: Allstate’s short-term catastrophe model would have netted the company a 43% increase in Florida if it had been approved.
- Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo has been called out for its bankrolling of environmentally irresponsible projects such as a mountaintop removal for coal extraction.
Food
Make sure that the people who create your food aren’t killing the world around you in the process.
- Aurora Organic Dairy: This milk supplier sells under many supermarket chain brand names at Wal-Mart, Safeway, Trader Joe’s and other major stores, but its standards have not met up to USDA organic requirements.
- Sara Lee: Sara Lee had to pay $5.25 million in damages because of multiple violations of stratospheric ozone protection regulations.
- Nestle: Although residents in the area need to conserve water, Nestle has paid a license to continue to use nearly 1.5 million gallons of water a day for their bottling plant in Deer Park, Florida. Nestle is also known for aggressively promoting bottle formula over breast milk.
- Monsanto: Monsanto is a world leader in pesticide production, including the chemical Agent Orange.
- Archer Daniels Midland: Archer Daniels Midland burns peatlands in Indonesia to create palm plantations, a practice that is responsible for tons of carbon dioxide. Greenpeace reports that burning peatlands, when done by ADM and otherwise, results in 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, 4% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
- PepsiCo: Pepsi admitted that it bottles tap water, taking an environmental resource and creating waste with plastic bottles.
- Cadbury Schweppes: In 2005, Cadbury Schweppes pleaded guilty to 12 criminal counts of violating the Clean Water Act, due to industrial runoff from a bottling factory.
- Dole: Dole has been fined over contaminated water in Oahu. Dole workers in Ecuado have been exposed to pesticides, unsanitary water, and other atrocities.
- Heinz: Heinz uses palm oil in some of its products, an ingredient that is responsible for rainforest destruction in Indonesia.
- Starbucks: Starbucks was named as one of the “Ten Worst Greenwashers of 2003″ by The Green Life, and despite using 10% recycled paper in its hot drink cups, fails miserably in all other efforts of recycled content.
- Smithfield Foods: Smithfield has been fined $12.6 million for serious, chronic violations of the Clean Water Act, in which the company allowed excessive violations of legal limits of hazardous substances in water.
- Nippon Suisan Kaisha: Commercial whaling is illegal, but catching and killing whales in Japan is allowed as long as it is for scientific research. Nippon Suisan Kaisha obtains Japanese research permits, paints “research” on the side of their ships, and often uses their catch for food products, not research.
- Yum! Brands: Yum! was ordered to close an area store in Manila due to violation of emissions standards and contaminants in untreated waste water in Laguna Lake.
- McDonald’s: We all know that McDonald’s is responsible for a huge amount of beef production, an energy-intensive product that pollutes our environment with methane. The company also uses thousands of tons of unnecessary packaging.
- Tyson Foods: Tyson Foods has pleaded guilty to 20 violations of the Clean Water Act from its processing plant near Sedalia, Missouri, due to dumping of untreated and inadequately treated wastewater.
- Coca-Cola: In India, Coca-Cola is to blame for drying up the water in a nearby village. The people in the community now have to has to travel long distances to find water.
- Burger King: Burger King is right behind McDonald’s as the number 2 hamburger chain in the world. The company scored a 0 out of 100 when judged for its commitment to reversing climate change.
- Wendy’s: Another large hamburger chain, Wendy’s is criticized for its lack of commitment to reversing climate change, and faces litigation over the presence of carcinogenic chemicals in some of its food products.
- Chiquita Brands: Banana pickers employed by Chiquita have faced an array of health problems after being exposed to insecticides, which were used despite their demonstrated risks.
Mining
These companies strip the environment of natural resources, and make a mess while they’re at it.
- Teck Cominco: This mining company has polluted a stretch of the Columbian River, and refused to pay for or participate in a study contamination study of the river.
- Freeport-McMoRan: One of the largest mining companies in the world, Freeport owns Amax, Inc., a company that contanimated the soil and groundwater of Blackwell, Oklahoma with its smelter.
- Syncrude Canada: This mine’s practices were so bad, a woman decided to make a website to expose them-and she was censored by the company and the Alberta Government.
- Barrick Gold: Barrick Gold’s mines are responsible for drops in water level, disruption of glaciers, and an amazing amount of waste.
- DeBeers: This leader in diamond mining is responsible for plenty of environmental stresses from pipe and open pit mining. In the past, the company has been under fire for a project that would affect an important fish-bearing river in Canada.
Big Guys
These big, bad companies seem to be able to juggle multiple industries, but somehow ignore environmental safety in their quest for world domination.
- Altria Group: You may not recognize this name, but Altria Group is the company over entities like Phillip Morris and Kraft Foods. One of their most prominent offenses is the growing of tobacco, which is responsible for deforestation, can deplete soil, and contaminates our environment with dangerous chemicals.
- Halliburton: Among other offenses, Halliburton practices hydraulic fracturing, which boosts the yield of oil and natural gas by injecting toxins into the ground.
- 3M: 3M produces toxic chemicals like perfluorochemicals. The company has also been the subject of investigative reports about groundwater pollution near a St. Paul facility, and is responsible for a number of contaminated sites.
- Vivendi Universal: Vivendi is an active controller of mass media and water privatization. The company’s water utility, Veolia Environnement, has been cited for numerous environmental violations.
- Votorantim Group: The Votorantim Group in Brazil uses toxic and unsustainable materials, responsible for massive forest destruction in the Atlantic region, and has violated the Clean Air Act.
- Bechtel: Bechtel has been fined multiple times for construction and maintenance that either was, or potentially would be, damaging to human life and the environment.
- General Electric: This electronics company dabbles in defense and military contracts. It has been known to create incredibly toxic sites that knowingly expose people to radioactive material.
- Honeywell: Honeywell doesn’t just make thermostats-they’re working for the Pentagon now. The company owns multiple properties that are contaminated and in need of cleaning.
- United Technologies: United Technologies is a parent company to jet engine, helicopter, elevator, HVAC, and aerospace groups. The company has been the subject of multiple fines and violations of hazardous waste, contamination, and carcinogenic materials guidelines.
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