Contenders for Friends of the Earth's annual Exposed Awards, held at the Labour Party Conference, are announced today, with the publication of a report [1] highlighting the most environmentally and socially destructive companies and lobby groups attending the Conference. Friends of the Earth will be presenting gold, silver and bronze awards to the worst contenders at an awards ceremony on Bournemouth beach on Wednesday [2].

This is the second year that Friends of the Earth has exposed the activities of companies who - through their sponsorship of fringe events, receptions and exhibition stalls - are seeking special favours from the Labour Government. In Blackpool last year, awards were presented to BAA, Aventis, BNFL and Tesco. This year's contenders include eight companies and three corporate lobby groups who have been instrumental in lobbying against legislation that would protect the environment.

Labour depends on commercial money for about a sixth of its total income [3]. Sponsors at Conference have easy access to decision makers and power structures. And by sponsoring fringe events to discuss issues relating to improving the environment, social issues and human health, companies can present themselves as responsible, caring and green while continuing with unsustainable business as usual.

The nominations for Friends of the Earth's 2003 Exposed Awards are:

ASDA - a subsidiary of US multinational Wal-Mart, the biggest company in the world. The UK Competition Commission has found that big supermarkets engage in anti-competitive practices that operate against the public interest. Asda's policies and business strategy are consistently undermining the needs of people, farmers and the environment, and result in job losses every time a new supermarket is opened.

BAA makes lots of promises about sustainability and environmental performance, but this is mostly pure "greenwash" (pretending to be green while really continuing with unsustainable business as usual). The company has broken promises made to local residents over not seeking a third runway at Heathrow, and is now aggressively lobbying for a massive expansion of the aviation industry against the interests of both people and the environment.

BAE Systems is another master of "greenwash" having run a massive advertising campaign euphemistically describing itself as a "global systems company" which provides "protection from the storm". In fact, it is the world's second largest arms producer and manufactures many of the missiles (containing depleted uranium) that rain down upon the victims of war. Since last year's Conference. Since last year's conference, BAE has benefited from the war in Iraq but has also been the subject of widely reported allegations of corruption over arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

BARCLAYS is putting profits before Indonesian rainforests, indigenous peoples and one of Europe's most precious wilderness areas. Time and again, they have made promises and signed voluntary agreements to assure that they will not invest in environmental destruction. Time and again, they have been exposed for breaking these promises.

BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd) is exhibiting at the Labour Party conference, taken a full page advert in the conference brochure and is cynically sponsoring a fringe meeting on "Tackling Climate Change - Can the World Wait for Renewables?" Since last year's party conference, its relentless high-level lobbying has enabled it to dump £3.8 billion worth of liabilities onto the UK taxpayer.

CADBURY-SCHWEPPES is sponsoring a fringe-debate on "Corporate Social Responsibility" despite concerns about pesticide residues in chocolate, its marketing of fatty, sugary products via schools and about worker exploitation. Its close connections to the CBI suggest its motivation in hosting the fringe debate is to lobby against legislation that would improve the social and environmental performance of UK companies.

HUTCHINSON-WHAMPOA owns both 3 Mobile and Superdrug - who is planning to co-host a private breakfast seminar at conference on "Democratising Health". Ironically, the group is directly supporting the Burmese military regime through its operation of Rangoon Port despite calls by the UK Government for companies not to operate in Burma. The company is also behind plans to build a new port in Harwich, Essex which would destroy precious wildlife sites and cause massive disruption for local residents.

TESCO is co-hosting a fringe debate on "Promising the Earth? Food, Farming and Rural Communities". But Tesco has broken previous promises, for example on the sourcing of tropical timber and its treatment of British farmers. The reality is that Tesco is putting its profits before the interests of its suppliers, farmers, people and the environment, both here and abroad, while making worthless promises in glossy brochures.

The CONFEDERATION OF BRITISH INDUSTRY (CBI) is the UK's most powerful industry lobby group. It is extremely backward in its approach to regulation, regularly lobbying against measures to protect the environment (eg the Climate Change Levy) or to give people more rights.

FREEDOM TO FLY is the aviation industry's lead lobby group. Its arguments suggest that the "right to fly" is more important than the right to a clean and healthy environment, or the right to a good night's sleep. It is aggressively pushing for a massive airport expansion and fighting any suggestion that airlines should be subject to similar tax and regulation paid by other transport.

WATER UK is the association that represents the UK water and wastewater companies at national and European level. The UK water industry is one of the greatest sources of water pollution and Water UK's members are repeat offenders in the Environment Agency's annual report on corporate pollution.

Friends of the Earth's Corporate Accountability Campaigner Craig Bennett said:

"Once again, the Labour Party Conference is playing host to some of Britain's finest abusers of human and environmental rights who are sponsoring events in an attempt to boost their influence. This year's nominees for the Friends of the Earth Exposed Awards are classic examples of how the Labour Government's policy of allowing UK plc to regulate itself on social and environmental issues is penalising good business behaviour and rewarding corporate wrongdoing. If `Labour means fairness' - as their conference slogan claims - the Government should introduce changes to UK company law to make companies behave responsibly and stop putting profits before people and the environment".

[1] Copies of "Exposed: Big Business in Bournemouth" are available from the press office at Friends of the Earth or as a PDF here(PDF format)

[2] PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: The Friends of the Earth Exposed Awards ceremony will take place at 11:30am Wednesday 1st October on Bournemouth beach (or promenade) just east of the pier. Naked "Fat-Cat representatives" will receive the awards on "behalf" of this year's winner. Phone the Friends of the Earth Press Office for more details.
[3] ] £6.2 million in 2001 out of a total of £36.5 million, not including large individual donations from business people and others.

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.