expectations. In 1994, Greenpeace learned that Shell UK was planning to
dispose of Brent Spar — a 453-foot-tall, 14,500 ton cylindrical oil storage
facility — by dumping it in the North Sea. Environmentalists cried foul, and
Greenpeace launched a major public relations offensive against the oil com-
pany. Greenpeace activists landed on Brent Spar by boat, occupied the plat-
form for three weeks and generated ongoing news coverage before being
expelled. Shell resorted to high-powered water cannons to keep a Greenpeace
helicopter from approaching Brent Spar — providing more graphic television
images.
Protests and boycotts against Shell broke out across Europe. Even the worker
representatives on Shell Germany’s supervisory board expressed “concern
and outrage” at Shell’s decision to “turn the sea into a trash pit.” The mayor
of Leipzig banned Shell gas in city vehicles. German economics minister
Guenther Rexrodt announced that his ministry would join the boycott. Shell’s
German sales dropped 20 to 30 percent; in some areas they plummeted 40
percent.
Shell’s response was uncoordinated and unfocused. Finally, the company had
little choice but to give in. Shell UK announced that it would abandon plans to
sink the Brent Spar and that it would instead dismantle the platform on land.
The episode proves a stark example of the power of these new stakeholders
in influencing corporations. Some firms have learned to take proactive steps
to reinforce a socially responsible image. British Petroleum (BP) has adopted
such a strategy — at least insofar as an oil company is able to do so. BP has
announced goals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent — one of
the first big companies to take such a step. It also has vowed to reduce over-
all air, waste, and water emissions. It has built BP Solar International into one
of the world’s leading manufacturers of solar power generating equipment.
The company signed a $30 million contract with the Philippine government
to install over 1,000 packaged solar systems in 400 remote villages. BP also
promised to eliminate flaring, the burning of natural gas generated in con-
junction with crude oil production and a major source of carbon dioxide
emissions. Chris Rose, deputy executive director of Greenpeace — the very
group that vexed Shell during the Brent Spar episode — called BP one of “the
good guys in this industry.”
Activists increasingly see corporations as agents of social change. Instead of
branding these companies as bogeymen, they often woo them as potential
allies. In many cases, convincing a huge company such as Wal-Mart — with
its giant supply chain and influence over its rivals — to alter its environmental
policies may have a greater impact than lobbying for government regulations.
As a 2007 article in the Financial Timesobserved, “Suppliers and activist
groups that once dueled over government regulatory standards are battling
instead to win over the Wal-Mart buyers who head its product-focused ‘sus-
tainability networks.’”
252 Part IV: Managing the Flow of Information
