IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i14p3760-d247020.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Green Gilded Oil: How Faux Sustainability by US Oil Companies is Undermining Neo-Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Adrah Parafiniuk

    (Politics and International Affairs, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA)

  • Zachary A. Smith

    (Politics and International Affairs, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA)

Abstract

Greenwashing has been a common practice among companies since the 1980s. There are some companies that take that practice to an extraordinary level. These companies create a sustainability report, dedicate pages on their website touting their environmental stewardship, spend money on projects that make them appear “green” and at the same time spend millions of dollars lobbying the government to decrease environmental regulations and stop any plan to curtail carbon emissions. We will call these companies green gilded as they are coated in a thin layer of environmentalism as a means to deceive the public. This paper analyzes some of the largest US oil producers with an in-depth analysis of ExxonMobil and Chevron Corp. It examines the money they spend on lobbying efforts to undermine actual sustainable policy. It looks into their sustainability reports, money spent to limit their carbon footprint, and money spent on environmental stewardship. It also compares the carbon footprint of each company. It analyzes the dangers of green gilding and bilking the public. It defines and describes what a neo-sustainable approach in the oil business would look like.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrah Parafiniuk & Zachary A. Smith, 2019. "Green Gilded Oil: How Faux Sustainability by US Oil Companies is Undermining Neo-Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:14:p:3760-:d:247020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/14/3760/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/14/3760/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Heede, 2014. "Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854–2010," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 229-241, January.
    2. Sabine Matejek & Tobias Gössling, 2014. "Beyond Legitimacy: A Case Study in BP’s “Green Lashing”," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(4), pages 571-584, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Frumhoff & Richard Heede & Naomi Oreskes, 2015. "The climate responsibilities of industrial carbon producers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 157-171, September.
    2. Jacob Hörisch & Jana Kollat & Steven A. Brieger, 2017. "What influences environmental entrepreneurship? A multilevel analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurs’ environmental orientation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 47-69, January.
    3. Ivanova, Diana & Wieland, Hanspeter, 2023. "Tracing carbon footprints to intermediate industries in the United Kingdom," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    4. Pottier, Antonin & Combet, Emmanuel & Cayla, Jean-Michel & de Lauretis, Simona & Nadaud, Franck, 2021. "Who emits CO2 ? Landscape of ecological inequalities in France from a critical perspective," FEEM Working Papers 311053, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    5. Oliver Lazarus & Sonali McDermid & Jennifer Jacquet, 2021. "The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Hörisch, Jacob & Ortas, Eduardo & Schaltegger, Stefan & Álvarez, Igor, 2015. "Environmental effects of sustainability management tools: An empirical analysis of large companies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 241-249.
    7. Haiyun, Cui & Zhixiong, Huang & Yüksel, Serhat & Dinçer, Hasan, 2021. "Analysis of the innovation strategies for green supply chain management in the energy industry using the QFD-based hybrid interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy decision approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. Jacob Hileman & Ivan Kallstenius & Tiina Häyhä & Celinda Palm & Sarah Cornell, 2020. "Keystone actors do not act alone: A business ecosystem perspective on sustainability in the global clothing industry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, October.
    9. Gerard Farias & Christine Farias & Isabella Krysa & Joel Harmon, 2020. "Sustainability Mindsets for Strategic Management: Lifting the Yoke of the Neo-Classical Economic Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Tim Mulgan, 2019. "Corporate Agency and Possible Futures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 901-916, February.
    11. Ploy Achakulwisut & Peter Erickson & Céline Guivarch & Roberto Schaeffer & Elina Brutschin & Steve Pye, 2023. "Global fossil fuel reduction pathways under different climate mitigation strategies and ambitions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Jayme Walenta, 2020. "Climate risk assessments and science‐based targets: A review of emerging private sector climate action tools," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), March.
    13. Aastvedt, Tonje Marthinsen & Behmiri, Niaz Bashiri & Lu, Li, 2021. "Does green innovation damage financial performance of oil and gas companies?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    14. Chhetri, Netra & Ghimire, Rajiv & Wagner, Melissa & Wang, Meng, 2020. "Global citizen deliberation: Case of world-wide views on climate and energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    15. Nawaf S. Alhajeri & Fahad M. Al-Fadhli & Ahmed Z. Aly, 2019. "Unit-Based Emissions Inventory for Electric Power Systems in Kuwait: Current Status and Future Predictions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    16. Scoville-Simonds, Morgan & Jamali, Hameed & Hufty, Marc, 2020. "The Hazards of Mainstreaming: Climate change adaptation politics in three dimensions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    17. Charles H. Cho & Matias Laine & Robin W. Roberts & Michelle Rodrigue, 2018. "The Frontstage and Backstage of Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Bill," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 865-886, October.
    18. Rongbing Huang & Yubo Huang, 2020. "Does Internal Control Contribute to a Firm’s Green Information Disclosure? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, April.
    19. Muhammad Imran & Azlan Zahid & Salma Mouneer & Orhan Özçatalbaş & Shamsheer Ul Haq & Pomi Shahbaz & Muhammad Muzammil & Muhammad Ramiz Murtaza, 2022. "Relationship between Household Dynamics, Biomass Consumption, and Carbon Emissions in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-16, May.
    20. Edward B. Barbier & Joanne C. Burgess, 2017. "Innovative Corporate Initiatives to Reduce Climate Risk: Lessons from East Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:14:p:3760-:d:247020. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.