Jamie Grassby's Blog

A few nights ago, I received a knock on my door. It was a man from Greenpeace that was going door-to-door looking to raise awareness and trying to gain prospective members. He spoke of many different Greenpeace initiatives but I was especially interested in one of their bigger operations that’s taking place in China. Like this article suggests, Greenpeace is investigating a Chinese conglomerate that they’ve noticed polluting many of China’s Waterways, including the Yangtze river, the largest river in Asia. Greenpeace beliefs that several different textile plants have been polluting these waters with harmful toxins and chemicals that are banned in Europe and North America. Nike, Puma, Adidas, Abercrombie and H&M are some of the big name companies involved with this conglomerate and Greenpeace has let that been known. As a brash and rather abrasive lobbyist group, Greenpeace has been trying hard to find a solution with these big companies.

I have found it quite interesting to see the difference between the different companies reactions to this so-called scandal. For some, like Nike and Adidas, bad publicity is the last thing they can afford and both have decided to make changes through thier manufacturers in China. Greenpeace has also set-up a contest on their site, encouraging both companies to compete to see who can rid themselves of these toxins and perform a detox.

Others have shown a little resistance, like Abercrombie. Abercrombie In an emailed response to Greenpeace, Abercrombie had said the conglomerate had not signed up for a social responsibility program that Abercrombie is part of. As a consumer, I would really use this as a. I would much rather buy products from a company that though they might have made mistakes, they take an active role in trying to resolve them, then others companies who try to to sweep the whole problem under the carpet.

Tags: No Comments