Corporations like to adorn themselves as climate-friendly – even if that’s not true. The German environmental aid is therefore looking for the brazen climate lie. From CO2-neutral flying to insane packaging mania, six companies are competing for the “Golden Vulture” prize.
From the alleged reduction in waste to wasteful recycling – the German Environmental Aid (DUH) is again awarding the “Golden Vulture” abusive prize for the “boldest environmental lie” and has nominated six companies for it. In all cases, customers are “motivated by the green promise to consume environmentally harmful products,” explained DUH federal manager Barbara Metz. “In reality, none of the nominated products makes a positive contribution to climate and environmental protection, they only drive us deeper into the climate crisis.”
The mineral oil company Shell, among others, was nominated for the abusive award. According to the DUH, it advertises that drivers can offset the CO2 emissions of their own journey for just 1.1 cents per liter of petrol or diesel. How exactly this is to be done is left open by the company. In addition, the cost dimension is “not at all correct”, criticized the environmental aid.
Similar allegations concern Lufthansa. According to the information, the airline promises CO2-neutral flying with a new tariff. This should succeed above all through so-called compensation projects – for example, forests are planted to compensate for carbon dioxide emissions. The DUH considers many such projects to be dubious. In addition, Lufthansa speaks of the use of “sustainable” aviation fuels – but these are “neither today nor in the foreseeable future in even approximately sufficient quantities available”.
Another contender for the shameful price is Edeka: The supermarket chain has simply replaced the thin disposable plastic bags that have been banned since the beginning of the year with those that are a little thicker, the DUH explained. “Edeka is still so cheeky and now simply markets the bags as ‘reusable’ and wants to create the impression of a reusable carrier bag,” criticized the organization. However, the bags are not suitable for “multiple reuse”.
According to the DUH, the Danone water brand Volvic advertises its disposable plastic bottles as environmentally friendly because they are said to be made from 100 percent recycled PET. “However, this is not environmentally friendly, because the production of recycled material also consumes energy, chemicals and resources,” says the organization. “It’s much more ecological to offer water regionally in reusable bottles that can be refilled up to 50 times.”
A McDonald’s campaign has also been criticized. In it, the fast food company claims, according to the DUH, that it produces less waste – but it is becoming more and more. McDonald’s says it uses more renewable or recycled materials in its single-use packaging. However, a lot of waste continues to be produced, as the environmental aid emphasized. “The best way to avoid waste is to use reusable packaging,” but the group rejects this. The environmental aid also sees “packaging madness” at the cooking box producer HelloFresh: The company supplies the many ingredients that are precisely measured for the respective dish “in environmentally harmful and material-intensive small packaging,” explained the DUH.
According to the organization, it received more than 1,200 submissions for the “Golden Vulture”. The six nominees can be voted on on the DUH website until September 12th. Shortly thereafter, the “Golden Vulture” will be awarded.
