Exxon · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with Exxon

Some Oil Companies are More Eco Friendly: Who's Fuelling Your Summer Drives?

Thanks to Flickr user Emutree for this great image!

When I first started driving 15 years ago, I had it out for Exxon. I had seen the oil-covered birds from the Valdez oil spill in Alaska and had cried for the sad-eyed seals who were hosed down by volunteers. For years — at least a decade — I refused to buy gas at Exxon and would ask my friends to indulge my boycott, especially when Exxon dragged it’s feet cleaning up. I was voting with my dollars, dammit.

And then I went to college and figured out that ALL the oil companies were evil, what with lobbying against CAFE standards (if we had stuck by CAFE, we wouldn’t need foreign oil today), not to mention the really crappy coffee at their associated convenience stores. And then Exxon merged with Mobil. So I gave up my boycott eventually, stopped at an Exxon if it was convenient, and boycotted lots (and lots) of other things.

And then came those interminable, spam emails about how we should all get together and not buy gas and that would really show those oil companies who’s boss! (These are all false and this scheme will never work). But there seemed to be no point. The oil companies had us addicted and it didn’t matter who we bought our crack-gas from!

Well, it turns out it does. While I’m 100% behind the idea of getting rid of personal cars altogether, like those happy biking Germans, or of running ALL cars on non-fossil fuel alternatives by 2030 (as Sweden built into their recent energy and climate bill), the thing is, these initiatives will take time. (In the meantime, you can at least bike to work!). And I’m impatient. I want to do something now (I can’t bike to work, I work at home!

Well, I’m going back to voting with my dollars. Turns out there’s a significant difference in how environmentally-friendly (or not) the oil companies are, and why shouldn’t that info impact my decision about where to spend my money (on gas and snacks, and, yes, maybe even some bad coffee) this summer? The research team at Greenopia spent weeks digging into sustainability reports, oil spill data and alternative energy initiatives, ranking the top 10 oil companies for their Earth-friendlier initiatives.

I’m back to shunning Exxon & Mobil, as they are still up to their climate-screwing ways. And they’re sixth on Greenopia’s list; I would prefer to buy from one of the top three oil companies, who are at least LESS evil.

1. British Petroleum (BP) ranked number one for sustainability among oil companies. Why? It has one of the most transparent and complete sustainability reports, but most importantly, it’s taking its slogan, “Beyond Petroleum” seriously. “BP supports and is pursuing development of solar, wind, hydrogen, and biofuel technologies. BP has pledged spending of $8 billion dollars towards renewable over the next few years, making it one of the biggest renewable donors in the world. BP is also progressive in its stance on climate change and publicly admits its merits and is acting to improve its own internal performance," writes Greenopia research director Doug Mazeffa in his report on BP. Though BP isn’t as bullish as it once was on alternative energy, they’re doing better than the rest.

cars, Exxon, gas companies, oil

The money is greener on the other side

No Comments

by Summer Rayne Oakes · 02/15/07

Last month Bill Gates’ investments came under investigation by a few LA Times reporters. The argument of the intensely thorough 8-page (yes, 8 pages!) article was this: Do Gates’ investments in companies like Exxon Mobile and Chevron Corp undermine the good deeds of the actual foundation?

I recently asked Thomas Van Dyck, leading SRI consultant at RBC Dain, what he thought about the matter. Check out the Grist article here.

Chevron, Exxon, farm, Home, News, tv

Big Business Can Make a Big Difference!?

6 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 01/14/07

Actually, I am anti-capitalism, BUT I realize I live within a system that’s stuck with the concept, and I’m willing to work within it (which, in my experience has yielded more positive change than trying to overthrow it….or maybe I’m just getting old!) So I was pretty fascinated by the fact that 40 countries on the Fortune 500 list are buying renewable energy – and some in large amounts. As reported by CNN:

The EPA is calling for Fortune 500 companies to double their green power purchases to more than 5 billion kilowatt hours by the end of next year – or enough electricity to run more than 400,000 homes in the U.S. a year.

It’s interesting to see which companies are involved. I’ve copied the whole list here and you can see more after the jump. I like to see that some companies are already at 100% like Whole Foods (predictable) and Liz Claiborne and Apple HQs (not expected!). As the CNN article noted, glaringly absent from the list are Fortune-500 toppers Wal-Mart (yes, I can hate them again!) and Exxon-Mobil.

1. Wells Fargo & Company

Green Power Usage in Kilowatts: 550,000,000
Percent Total of Electricity: 42%
Organization Type: Banking, Financial Services
Provider of Energy: 3 Phases Energy
Type of Energy: Wind

2. Whole Foods Market

463,128,000
100%
Retail
Austin Energy, Community Energy, PNM, Renewable Choice Energy, Sky Energy
Biomass, Geothermal, Small-hydro, Solar, Wind

3. Johnson & Johnson

306,418,000
30%
Manufacturing
On-site Generation, 3 Phases Energy, PECO Energy, Sempra Energy, Sterling Planet
Biomass, Small-hydro, Solar, Wind

4. Starbucks

185,000,000
20%
Food, Food Services
3 Phases Energy
Wind

5. DuPont Company

180,000,000
4%
Chemical
3 Phases Energy
Biogas, Wind

6. Staples

121,404,000
24%
Retail
3 Phases Energy, Avista Utilities, Pacificorp, Portland General Electric, Tennessee Valley Authority
Biogas, Biomass, Solar, Wind

business, car, community, electric, electricity, Energy, Entertainment, epa, Exxon, farm, Food, gas, health, health care, Home, News, paper, sport, Starbucks, Technology, transportation

Dumping once again

7 Comments

by Jennifer Veilleux · 10/02/06

This morning I read this article about toxic sludge being dumped by a tanker in the ocean and washing up on the shores of the Ivory Coast. The kid in the picture above has sores on his body from exposure to this stuff. People have gotten ill from exposure and inhalation of the pollutant and some have even died. Efforts are underway to clean-up and dispose of the waste. But, once a dumping action happens, it is so hard to contain and clean it up. Heinous events like this are inexcusable and I cannot believe more cannot be done to prevent them.

Companies and corporations have a great ability to damage our planet and need incentive to act responsibly. There is a serious need for a global environmental body of law and team of enforcers to make sure that the law is enforced. Where are the regulations we really need to make sure that things of this nature cease? We cannot keep dumping in our oceans and think that the waste will just disappear.

Whatever someone does in one place, in one country, in one moment, will impact the world.

I am reminded of a research trip I took to the island of San Salvador, located far east in the Bahamian Islands. While I was there, I took a trip out to the almost completely uninhabited eastern shore and hiked down to the beach from the road. I came around a bend in the path and was shocked at the site of garbage; garbage as far as the eye could see in all colors of the rainbow. Anything that floats and large pads of petroleum waste were polluting an otherwise pristine tropical beach. I was told that this garbage washed in from cruise ships and whoever else happened by and decided to dump their waste in the water. In investigating the waste, I found languages from around the globe including Japanese, Russian, and English. There are laws against this.

I remember when I was a kid in Connecticut, they shut down the beaches because medical waste was washing up on the shore.

There is not one place on the planet that has not felt human presence in the form of pollutants. Even in Antartica, coke cans sometimes wash up next to the penguins…

I am also reminded of images of sea birds covered in oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, back in the 1980s. This tragedy prompted Congress to pass the Oil Pollution Act in 1990, tightening regulations on oil tankers.

I hope that the same will come out of this recent careless act in Africa.