Archived press release

Exposed Awards - The Winners Are...

1 October 2003

Friends of the Earth revealed the winners of the coveted Labour Party Conference Exposed Awards, today in Bournemouth at a glittering ceremony on the beach, rewarding the environmentally and socially damaging activities of companies and lobby groups sponsoring events at this year's conference.

Eleven companies and lobby groups had been shortlisted for the awards [1], which were organised for the second year at the Labour Party Conference.

In first place at the top of the podium of shame, was business lobby group, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), represented by a naked fat suit. The UK's most powerful industry lobby group was shortlisted for being "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".

Shortly behind in second place, and represented at the ceremony by the Grim Reaper, was weapon's manufacturer BAE Systems. The company was nominated for being a "master of `greenwash', having run a massive advertising campaign euphemistically describing itself as a `global systems company' which provides `protection from the storm'", but which in reality 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... 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".

And in third place, again represented by a naked greed fat suit, was supermarket giant Tesco. Tesco held a fringe debate at the Conference on "Promising the Earth? Food, Farming and Rural Communities", but Friends of the Earth accused the supermarket of breaking previous promises, including the sourcing of tropical timber and its treatment of British farmers. A spokesman described the supermarket as "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."

Speaking after the ceremony, Friends of the Earth corporate accountability campaigner Craig Bennett said:

"I am delighted to have the honour today of presenting these awards to such giants in the world of environmental and social damage. The CBI, which has been lobbying behind the scenes with great success to protect companies from regulations designed to protect the environment, is a deserving winner. BAE Systems and Tesco are both guilty of talking up their environmental and social credentials, while the reality is very different."

Photos from the Exposed Awards are available from Friends of the Earth or see www.idspicturedesk.com/picturedesk/I?k=hf85kNSOx2-29708&u=xhy

Notes: [1] See
www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/exposed_bournemouth_2003.pdf (PDF format)

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust