How Green are these companies?
This tool can be used with groups of young people to promote awareness on the impact of specific labour market sectors on the environment while fostering participants’ critical thinking and multiliteracy skills by contributing to their ability to analyse information and identify cases of greenwashing.
Inspiration for the tool
This tool was created by the Portuguese Innovation Factory and further developed by the project consortium.
Rationale: Why is this needed?
This activity is necessary to foster knowledge on companies’ environmental impact, on greenwashing pratices, and to promote critical thinking and multiliteracy skills, building capacities to validate information.
Objectives
By the end of this activity, participants will:
- have developed knowledge and awareness on the environmental impact of specific companies and sectors
- have developed skills to critically assess the information provided by companies on their environmental policies and/or reports
- have had the opportunity to explore and reflect on the environmental impact of companies and sectors in which they are interested in working in.
Resources needed
During the activity participants may use their own equipment (e.g., mobile phone) with internet access or access to computers with internet access should be made available.
Examples of misinformation on climate change may be used for the set up of the activity. Here is an excerpt of the following article: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2023/04/21/the-impact-of-disinformation-on-containing-climate-change-a-climate-crisis/
“Disinformation related to climate change comes in various forms. An EDMO investigation identified a number of narratives spread in summer 2022 in the EU including:
- climate change is not real and/or is not related to human activities;
- traditional media spread panic through false news and/or manipulated images;
- renewables, recycling, and electric vehicles are useless or dangerous;
- the climate movement is hypocritical and/or foolish.
For example, one story detected in the Netherlands claimed that carbon dioxide couldn’t be responsible for climate change, considering its low levels in the atmosphere and the fact that the planet “naturally” releases CO2.”
Here are some other examples of misinformation:
- https://www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fulltext/publhealth/42/1/annurev-publhealth-090419-102409.pdf?expires=1740496217&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=CC8758C086802EB2426B5D9B3F0FAA4E
- https://edmo.eu/publications/disinformation-about-climate-change-main-narratives-in-june-at-the-european-level/
- https://talmil.org/the-environment/
- https://www.dw.com/en/four-climate-change-myths-debunked/a-38530311
- https://climatefeedback.org/
- https://climatefeedback.org/introducing-the-climate-science-desk-science-feedback-portal-help-journalists-verify-climate-claims/
Websites that may help participants find valid information:
- https://carbonmarketwatch.org/campaigns/corporate-climate-responsibility-monitor-2024
- https://carbonmarketwatch.org/campaigns/corporate-climate-responsibility-monitor
- https://newclimate.org/resources/publications/corporate-climate-responsibility-monitor-2024
- https://truthinadvertising.org
- https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/managing-climate-risks-and-impacts-through-due-diligence-for-responsible-business-conduct_8aee4fce-en.html
Activities
Setup: Provide a brief explanation of the activity and topic
This activity aims to promote learners’ reflection and critical analysis of how known companies present themselves and their policies regarding environmental issues. The facilitator may introduce the topic by discussing how important it is to have access to reliable data on the environment to understand the impact of specific sectors of the labour market and specific companies on climate change, and to make adequate decisions. The facilitator may provide examples of misinformation on climate change and the existence of websites in which valid and reliable information is provided.
Activity – step 1: Participants are organised into pairs to explore one company of their choice and summarise the information collected, as provided by the company, identifying their environmental policies, aims, and impact.
The pairs should select one company they are interested in exploring (for example, by considering sectors of the labour market in which they would like to work in). The facilitator may also provide some potential ideas to the groups – examples of companies that share data online on their sustainability policies and/or reports:
Food – Nestlé:
https://www.nestle-esar.com/sustainability
https://www.nestle.com/sustainability
https://www.nestle-cwa.com/en/randd/environmental-sustainability
Fashion – Inditex (owner of Zara for example):
https://annualreport2023.inditex.com/en/medioambiente
Cosmetics – L’Oréal:
https://www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-planet
Tech – Google:
https://publicpolicy.google/sustainability
https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/2024-environmental-report
Tech – Apple:
https://www.apple.com/environment
Energy – Shell:
https://www.shell.com/sustainability/our-approach/commitments-policies-and-standards.html
Finance – American Express:
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/company/corporate-sustainability
https://amex2020ir.q4web.com/governance-and-corporate-responsibility/reporting-and-resources
https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/en-us/newsroom/pdfs/AXP_2023_2024_ESG_Report.pdf
Auto Industry – Tesla:
https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/2023-tesla-impact-report-highlights.pdf
You can look for countries in your own country, use these in English or try to use automatic translators if you are interested in these companies and reports.
Each pair must prepare a summary presentation of the company’s environmental policies, aims, and impact.
Activity – step 2: Each pair will search online to validate (or not) the information provided by the selected company on their environmental policies, aims and impact.
Each pair will try to explore the veracity and reliability of the data provided by the companies and summarise what they have found out to be true, somewhat true and false, thus seeking to fact check the information provided by the companies. The facilitator may guide pairs that are struggling to find information, asking reflective questions (as the ones identified below) on the marketable role of sustainability in the contemporary market – greenwashing – and / or by directing them to worthy sources of data (such as the websites here provided – e.g., carbonmarketwatch.org).
Presentations and debate: Each pair will present all their findings to the whole group, starting by their summary of the company’s presentation of their sustainability policies, followed by the conclusions of their fact checking activity.
After each presentation, the facilitator should promote discussion, connecting their findings and reflections with careers in those sectors, exploring the participants’ reflection on the role of these issues on their vocational/career decision-making.
Extension activities
Set out any other activities that could extend the learning that takes place in this tool.
Reflections/Consolidation of learning
The facilitator may guide pairs that are struggling to find information, asking reflective questions on the marketable role of sustainability in the contemporary market – greenwashing: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/greenwashing
- Have you ever heard about greenwashing?
- Why do you think company’s do it?
- What did you learn in this activity?
- Were you surprised with what you found out about this company (or this sector)?
- How does this impact how you think about your career?
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