Goldsberry, C. (2020, November 12). Rushing Toward the Sustainability Cliff. Plastics Today. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.plasticstoday.com/sustainability/rushing-toward-sustainability-cliff
The article discusses a recent fraud that occurred in the biofuel industry that resulted in two biofuel company owners being sentenced to prison. Essentially what happened is both of these owners had a biofuel company known as Keystone. The owners and company worked to falsify corporate documents to make it appear that their fuel was meeting green standards that the fuel was not meeting. This resulted in them having access to renewable fuel credits which is exactly what it sounds like, monetary compensation for being green. However, eventually it was revealed that the company was lying about meeting those standards, and the owners were sent to prison.
This article is extremely reflective of a problem that we will be seeing much more of in the U.S. The government has been and will be implementing more tax incentives and policies to curb carbon emissions and fight global warming. However, as we see many companies rush to adopt sustainability it is very likely that greenwashing will be very common. Essentially companies will keep on committing schemes to benefit themselves, like the one seen in this article. This is extremely unfortunate because tax incentives and monetary incentives to go green are supposed to support everyone; however, greedy companies may continue to work their ways around a greener future.
This is a super interesting point! It reminds me of the discussions we’ve had in class about labeling produce ‘organic’ when industrial farms begin to bend the definitions of what the public believes ‘organic’ is. I think that as companies begin to increase greenwashing, the government needs to create stronger legislation to define what “green” or sustainable really means.
Thank you. I totally agree.
I agree with your take. I think that incentives will be taken advantage by companies and they will use them to increase their profits. However, do you think it is still worth it to provide the incentives?
Yes I think it is still worth it. Incentives like this will be a huge part of our shift towards sustainability; however, we must make sure to enforce regulations and not allow cheating.