The fairly new “green” and eco-friendly craze only exists now due to all of the terrible things people have done to the earth in hopes of making their companies more profitable. Money is the magic potion that makes humanity disappear and greed reign supreme over everything else, even the well-being of the planet, the animals that live amongst us, and even fellow human beings. The list could go into the dozens, but here are just ten of the least eco-friendly companies ever.
1. Archer Daniels Midlands Co. Tour
Ironically, “green” agricultural company Archer Daniels Midland is anything but. The practices of this company are the epitome of hypocritical. At its core, Archer Daniels Midland is based off of profit, not eco-friendliness. In 2006, this big business was trying to create all of it’s so-called “green” power by burning coal, which emits highly carcinogenic pollutants and greenhouse gases said to be associated with global warming. The ethanol this dangerous process would create was lauded as “the green fuel of the future” by George Bush and many others, so don’t worry about all the horrible side effects that basically negate any progress ethanol would have allowed - or the fact that ethanol itself produces a lot of air pollution as a side effect to all its environmental benefits.
ADM is ranked as one of Newsweek’s least eco-friendly companies and one of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts’ most toxic, which takes into consideration that Fortune 500, Forbes 500, and Standard and Poor’s 500 all called out ADM as an air polluter.
In 2001, ADM agreed to pay a US$1.46 million fine for air pollution, and to spend an additional US$1.6 million making sure it didn’t happen again. In a display of blatant disregard for the environment, in 2003, ADM was fined for air pollution once again, paying a collective US$10.5 million to rectify their abuses and prevent further pollution.
2. Apple
Apple has been lauded as one of the least green technology companies, and not for its reliance on Foxconn’s suicidal slaves to make its products.
Greenpeace was the first to expose Apple’s reliance on what they called “dirty data” centres, or servers that rely mostly on highly polluting coal power plants. One of Apple’s investments alone implied a tripling in the amount of coal power used, rocketing it up to the equivalent of powering 80,000 US homes in the name of iPhones and iPads.
“Consumers want to know that when they upload a video or change their Facebook status that they are not contributing to global warming or future Fukushimas,” said Greenpeace’s IT policy analyst Gary Cook, but we’re pretty sure that most people don’t care - Apple’s quarterly earnings have, for the most part, continued to increase.
3. Monsanto
Corporate giant Monsanto’s laundry list of offenses is so long and egregious that it would be easiest to compile them as just that - a list:
- In the 1960s, Monsanto created herbicidal warfare program Agent Orange, of which almost 20,000,000 gallons were sprayed over Vietnam to “defoliate” the land. Instead, it ravaged the land entirely and destroyed the lives of an estimated 3 million Vietnamese people, including approximately 150,000 children born with birth defects. Agent Orange continues to cause horrible disabilities and disfigurements in Vietnam today.
- Monsanto is the creator of RoundUp, another poisonous weed killer containing many carcinogens and dangerous chemicals that have been highly criticized for being used on food products.
- Monsanto has dominated the food market, and owns over 95% of patents to all GM crops. Additionally, this corporation has not hesitated to sue small independent farmers if their crops become accidentally infested with GM crops they have not ‘paid’ for, robbing many individuals of their hard earned life savings.
- There exists a countless number of articles naming Monsanto as one of the world’s most unethical companies, plus a large handful of documentaries detailing Monsanto’s eco-unfriendly practices and terrible ethics.
4. Tyson Foods
Chicken supplier Tyson Foods has been accused, multiple times, of contaminating local water supplies with their poultry litter (chicken feathers, excrement and bedding materials), which causes high levels of arsenic to turn up in the crops that use the water. The accusations grew so strong that Tyson Foods has actually faced multiple lawsuits over the matter (in one instant paying a US$7.5 million fine), and that wasn’t the only time they were sued: Tyson Foods paid US$4 million after exposing their employees to Ammonia after their risk-management system “fell behind schedule” in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.
Tyson Foods doesn’t only hurt the surrounding environment, but their treatment of chickens has been called cruel and unethical; workers have been accused of torturing the birds and urinating on the slaughter line.
In 2004, Tyson paid another US$7.3 million in settlement fees after creating phosphorous pollution in Tulsa’s drinking water sources.
5. AES
At less than 5% capacity, a utilities power plant was already spitting out an egregious amount of pollution into the air in Redondo Beach, California.
The nearby area called “an industrial wasteland,” AES reluctantly agreed to downsize their plant from 38 to 12 acres after public outcry criticized the business for being unnecessary and hugely detrimental to the surrounding environment. Light pollution, air polluting emissions, black soot, and noise pollution abound near AES’ power plant.
6. CF Industries
CF Industries is one of the top three ammonia producers in the entire world, and is in turn responsible for a terrible amount of global warming-promoting greenhouse gases. As a consequence of their improper usage and disposal of ammonia-laced fertilizer, CF Industries faced US$12 million in fines in a settlement with the EPA after a fertilizer manufacturing plant in Florida was found to be grossly mismanaged. On top of that, the company was required to pour US$163.5 million into ensuring proper future care of the facility.
CF Industries was also sued by the City of West, Texas for over US$1 million in damages after a local plant exploded and caused damage to the high school, middle school and other buildings in the surrounding area. Even worse is that the accident took the lives of 15 people. The complaint claimed that the facility should have been better inspected and been better equipped with safety procedures that would have prevented the blast.
7. Bunge
Bunge Limited is a Bermudan food processing company operating out of White Plains, New York, and has been accused of destroying a tribe of Guarani people in Brazil by producing crops on their land which has brought health-damaging pesticides to the land, introduced unsafe machinery, and forced the indigenous people into a tiny section of their land where they are unable to operate as they normally would.
The result of Bunge’s sugar cane growing on Brazilian land has resulted in both suicides and murders of the Guarani people. Discarded machinery rots on the land and in their drinking water, and Bunge’s response was…basically nothing. Bunge stated that they would continue to use the land.
8. Consol Energy
Consol Energy spent over US$3 million lobbying in 2010 alone on issues relating to both health care and renewable energy standards so that they wouldn’t, in the end, lose a profit with their unethical and environmentally damaging practices. Consol fought against CO2 emission limits since they are the largest coal mining company in the world and depend on harming the environment to turn a profit.
In 2009, the EPA accused Consol Energy of contaminating Dunkard Creek in West Virginia and consequently killing thousands of fish, but after doling out US$200 million to a water treatment facility and paying a US$5.5 million penalty, they for some reason continued to operate the polluting mining operations nearby.
9. Peabody Energy
Another contender on Newsweek’s Worst, Peabody Energy starts out on a bad foot just for being the world’s largest coal mining company.
Peabody Energy contaminated the drinking water of the Navajo people on the Black Mesa after using potable water to transport coal slurry on a pipeline running some 300 miles long, causing Navajo reservations to close in response. The company went on to damage the environment in an area of Wyoming where they placed mining operations and, instead of working on the environmental friendliness of their business, have instead merely thrown some money at equipment designed to reverse the effects of the damage they have done.
10. Chanel
Surprisingly, one of the world’s most popular fashion brands is also indirectly responsible for contributing to the deforestation of the Amazon. By polluting the waters with illegally dumped chemicals, the surrounding land is being destroyed by Chanel. In addition, more and more of the rainforest is destroyed on a daily basis to create the overpriced leather sold by Chanel.
In March 2013, Greenpeace called for Chanel (and multiple other high fashion brands) to promise to ensure that their business wasn’t associated with the dumping of hazardous materials - and Chanel did not reply at all.
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