The Berkana Institute

Actual Business Practices

Please post statistics and data revealing the business activity of British Petroleum.
This would include but is not limited to: annual investments, job structuring, budget suggestions, properties and assets.

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• This article is an extract from a longer article "Endangered Wildlife Friends Are Here!" by  John Stauber ( a greenwashed member) in PR Watch
• In late July 2000 BP launched a massive $200 million public relations and advertising campaign, introducing the company with a new slogan - 'Beyond Petroleum' - and a green and yellow sun as its logo. The campaign was handled by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, one of the major advertising companies that also owns a slew of PR companies. [6] Around the world the company took out full-page colour advertisements in major magazines.
• In a column for CorpWatch, researcher Kenny Bruno, dissected the advertisement. "BP's re-branding as the "Beyond Petroleum" company is perhaps the ultimate co-optation of environmentalists' language and message. Even apart from the twisting of language, BP's suggestion that producing more natural gas is somehow akin to global leadership is preposterous. Make that Beyond Preposterous," he wrote.

    While noting that BP was indeed the largest producer of solar energy, Bruno pointed out that was achieved by              spending $45 million in 1999 to buy Solarex which was dwarfed by the $26.5 billion it spent to buy ARCO to                 expand its oil portfolio. As for the claim that BP was starting a journey that would reshape public energy                         expectations, Bruno was scathing: "Pretentious stuff for a company serving mainly oil and gas, with just a sliver           of solar on the side. Make that Beyond Pretentious." (BP- SourceWatch)

• The disparity between the companies reassuring rhetoric and reality has come to light elsewhere too. In March 2003, a Californian air quality regulatory agency sued BP for $319 million over what it alleged were thousands of violations of emissions standards at its Carson oil refinery in the port of Los Angeles. (full Article)
  

Marketing

Please post commercials and marketing actions of British Petroleum that present them as green.

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Commercials