Juliette Renaud, from Friends of Earth France, organizer of the award, says that the awards has been a success in rising peoples awareness on the activities that the companies undertake: “people are tired of all the lies from the companies – trying to sell products that are supposed to be green but are not in reality”. She furthermore states that companies are every year reacting more to the Pinocchio Awards, as they are afraid of damaging their image. But the main reason behind the award is to have a binding legal framework for the activities of the multinational companies – and last year they had parliamentary groups presenting a proposal to the French parliament in order to recognize the companies’ legal responsibilities. After ten years of different forms of campaigning Juliette declares that the fight is still ongoing.

The nominated companies

In the category “Greener than green” – the three companies that has led the most abusive and misleading communication campaign in regard to its actual activities are nominated:

• EDF – for continuing to heavily invest in coal plants in Serbia, contradicting its own ambition for a “diversified and carbon-free energy mix”

• Pur Project – for its planting trees and protecting the forest to compensate for the pollution of multinational corporations – without taking into consideration the effect it has on local communities

• GDF Suez – that has through “the biggest green bond” collected money from ethical investors, using it to fund destructive projects like dam building projects

In the category “Dirty hands, full wallet” - the three companies that has the most opaque policy at the financial level, in terms of lobbying or in its supply chain are nominated:

• Perenco – for its oil drilling activities in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has heavily impacted the environment and its people

• Samsung – for its cellphone production in China, in factories exploiting the population including children

• Lyon-Turrin Ferroviare – for using taxpayer’s money for the construction of tunnels for a new high-speed train through the Alps, without taking consideration to the environment

In the category “One for all, all for me!” the three companies that has the most aggressive policy in terms of appropriation, exploitation or destruction of natural resources are nominated:

• Shell – for its fracturing projects, particularly in Ukraine and Argentina, extracting shale gas without consideration to the population or the environment

• Total – for its exploitation of oil and gas in Nigeria, using CSR programs to divide and rule communities, and to mask its land grabbing in Nigeria

• Crédit Agricole – for its financing of dirty energy, particularly its financing of mountain top removal, a coal extraction technique with drastic environmental and health effects.

People can cast their vote on the Pinocchio Awards’ webpage on ones company of choice until the 17th of November. You can find interviews performed by Real World Radio on our website, highlighting the actives of some of the companies.