Tar sands snubbed by 'green' retailers
Eco-campaign against Alberta's oil heats up with companies' boycott
Published On Thu Feb 11 2010
By Mitch Potter Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON–Two trendy North American retail chains have washed their hands of Alberta's high-carbon oil sands, as environmentalists intensify a campaign to demonize the Canadian fuel.
Organic food retailer Whole Foods Markets Ltd. and home furnishings chain Bed Bath and Beyond are believed to be the first major companies to stipulate to their fuel suppliers that they don't want gasoline refined from crude oil coming from the Alberta oil sands.
Oil sands production is criticized by environmentalists because the process used to refine the oil emits significantly more carbon dioxide than the process used in production of other fuels.
"We lead on issues," Whole Foods vice-president Michael Besancon said Wednesday. "That's what we do and it's what's expected of us."
Considered the world's largest organic food retailer, Whole Foods has 289 stores in three countries, including one in Toronto, one in Oakville and four others across Canada. The company has more than a billion dollars in sales.
Bed Bath and Beyond has more than 1,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Its new policy states the company will prefer fuels – where possible – with lower greenhouse gas emissions. "Of current and particular concern are fuels produced by refineries taking feedstocks from the Canadian tar sands," the policy says.
The environmental organization ForestEthics says the action by the two major retailers is just the beginning of a campaign to embarrass oil sands producers.
"At least 30 large U.S. brands are seriously considering taking action to address the brand risk of being associated with tar sands," said Aaron Sanger, the ForestEthics activist behind the new policy announced by the two firms Wednesday.
"Whole Foods and Bed, Bath and Beyond are the first two examples. But we are going to see others. There are conversations of substance happening now with many other well-known, well-respected companies."
These first signs of traction in a ForestEthics campaign that began six months ago appear to mark a tactile new phase in the global effort by environmentalists to besiege Alberta oil. Following on a flurry of symbolic and at times subversive efforts to protest the oil sands industry, the ForestEthics strategy is to squeeze Canadian fuel out of the vast fleets of trucks that convey all that America buys.
Whole Foods suffered its own brand crisis last year when the company's CEO publicly opposed U.S. President Barack Obama's plan for health-care reform, sparking a surge of anger from its socially and environmentally conscious customer base.
The company's observance of the politics of food includes an earlier boycott of Canadian seafood products to protest the seal hunt.
But in announcing its oil sands ban, Whole Foods acknowledged the move is easier said than done. The company will avoid unprocessed petroleum from the oil sands at nine of its 10 U.S. distribution centres. But fuels derived from Alberta oil sands will continue to power Whole Foods trucks "in the Rocky Mountain region because as of now there is no alternative source," said Whole Foods spokeswomen Libba Letton.
The ambiguity of Alberta oil is not an insurmountable barrier to the ForestEthics campaign, Sanger told the Star. "It has been argued that tar sands feedstock has no bar code, so how do you detect it? But it is really not that difficult. We are talking about basically 15 refineries in the United States out of a total of 150," said Sanger. "As long as companies have the will to shift their supply away from those refineries, it is easily done."
Ottawa is expected to make a statement on the issue Thursday.
Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said last week Canada needs to clean up its act in the oil sands. The Conservative government will continue to support development of the sands because it's one of Canada's key economic drivers, but companies need to become more environmentally responsible so that Canada can achieve the "clean energy superpower" mantle to which the government aspires, he said in a speech at the University of Calgary.
"We have a lot of work to do. It is no secret, and should be no surprise that the general perception of the oil sands is profoundly negative. That is true both within Canada and internationally," Prentice said.
Alberta oil accounts for an estimated 20 per cent of total U.S. imports. And the U.S. commercial transportation sector accounts for an estimated 20 per cent of total U.S. petroleum consumption. Another 60 per cent of America's oil runs private automobiles.
Greg Stringham of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said the industry is aware of ForestEthics' campaign and is mounting its own public relations effort to the targeted companies.
Bob McManus of Alberta Energy said oil sands crude is unjustly maligned.
"We're aware that there are individuals and organizations who are working very hard to curtail oil sands production and that we need to work harder and better at getting our message out," he said.
ForestEthics served notice in writing to more than 200 Fortune 500 companies six months ago, announcing plans to publicly name companies reluctant to act on the oil sands issue.
With files from The Canadian Press
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/763791--tar-sands-snubbed-by-...
