The environmental group ForestEthics scored a recent win on an economic campaign to discourage Fortune 500 companies from using gas for their fleets bought from sources that use gas from the Alberta oilsands, or tar sands. The Gap, Timbaland, Walgreen’s, and Levi Strauss have all signed on to the initiative.
Whole Foods and Federal Express were early adopters of the program, which calls on major companies to not use gas that is being sold by companies that get their supplies from the tar sands of Alberta.
Forest Ethics was also one of the companies in a coalition responsible for the Rethink Alberta campaign, an international ad campaign which discourages tourists from visiting Alberta because of the oilsands.
Here’s the next question: as a Canadian, do I agree with their actions? I have to say yes. It is true that the oilsands companies are starting to take measures to clean up their operations, but they are only doing so under the threat of losing their largest customer, the United States. In my view any actions they have taken to clean up their operations are too little, too late, and for the wrong reasons.
Fun stuff: Write a logo for WalMart and SafeWay trucks that shame them for continuing to use oilsands oil.
That’s ok.
The Gap will be boycotted here in Canada by many. Especially me. I think I may even spend a few hours with a sign in front of their store in the mall.
They have garbage merchandise as it is.
And of course, they have hypocritical ethics on the matter, a google search proves that much. Most of their suppliers have some pretty shady deals going internationally. How much of the Gap’s products originate from China? You would be surprised.
Those who don’t use our products but will take our money are hypocrites. The oil sands employ thousands, is a large part of Canada’s GDP, and has reclamation mandates to return their sites to a natural state. Don’t give in to marketing hype. Learn the whole truth.
As an Albertan, I would also like to see a better, cleaner, economical fuel source that can be used worldwide to enable people to live longer, greener lives. Rather than putting your money into an organization that works to shut down our current source of fuel – why not put your money into an organization that encourages new sources of green energy. As well, the comment above that says it is “too little, too late” is unfortunate. Many things that we humans do are not that great to start off with, but we are often able to turn them into workable solutions. Medicine in the 1900′s is a lot different than medicine today. We can and do improve as we learn – when we choose to – that is what makes us evolve. This “we can’t fix it, so get rid of it” attitude reminds me of early campaigns against people with leprosy. With the oil sands, we can’t fix it all right now, but we can improve it (and have a lot in the last few years and months). So instead of deciding that the whole thing is crap, why not join the ranks of the many companies, individuals and groups that are trying to make things better?