Archived press release

Government green scheme flops as businesses don't sign up

30 June 2003

A Government voluntary scheme, asking big business to commit to meeting environmental targets, has proved a flop after three years of operation. The scheme, Making a Corporate Commitment 2 [1], was launched in June 2000 with the intention of securing green commitments from more than 2,000 corporations. But Friends of the Earth has found that just 36 have signed up.

At the scheme's launch, the Government said they wanted to see 'MACC2' surpass the earlier energy efficiency commitment campaign which attracted some 2,000 signatories. But just 31 public bodies have committed to the scheme along with the 36 corporations, with their details published on-line at www.macc2.org.uk

An OECD study published last week exposed government voluntary environmental initiatives for failing to deliver more than business as usual [2]. The report further found that voluntarism such as MACC2 may weaken regulatory action. Friends of the Earth wants to see binding rules for corporate accountability and is backing the campaign for the Corporate Responsibility Bill to be introduced in to UK law [3].

Friends of the Earth Senior Corporates Campaigner Matt Phillips said:

"It's no surprise that this voluntary scheme has been a flop. Asking but not requiring companies to do the right thing just allows business to get away with greenwashing their image while continuing business as usual. The Government must instead regulate and introduce the Corporate Responsibility Bill."

Notes

[1] The MACC2 scheme says: "We are calling on chief executives and directors to examine the resource efficiency of their organisations and set themselves viable targets for improvement. By signing up to MACC2, your organisation is making a commitment to improving its performance on: greenhouse gas emissions; production of waste; consumption of water; By making your Corporate Commitment, you are making a public demonstration of your organisation's values, vision and sense of responsibility and showing your stakeholders how serious you are about improving your efficiency and investing in the future."

[2] The report, Voluntary Approaches for Environmental Policy - Effectiveness, efficiency and usage in policy mixes, states: "there are only a few cases where such approaches have been found to contribute to environmental improvements significantly different from what would have happened anyway. ..Combining a voluntary approach with a tax or tradeable permit system can trigger quite significant additional administrative costs, and the environmental integrity of the other instrument can be weakened."

[3] See www.corporate-responsibility.org.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust