So, hands up. Who’s read about Greenpeace’s recent assault on Samsung over its commitment to renewable energy?
When I say ‘recent’, I’m referring to January 2018 (not February, March, October or November 2017). If the answer’s a no, this campaign is specifically connected to PyeongChang 2018’s claim to be running a Winter Games powered exclusively by renewable energy sources and zero carbon emissions.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Greenpeace has labelled Samsung a hypocrite because, as a TOP Olympic sponsor, and with Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance as a Sustainability Partner of PyeongChang 2018, Samsung only sources 1 per cent of its energy from renewable sources – with energy consumption increasing year on year.
Greenpeace has been pushing the entire IT sector to improve its
sustainability credentials for a number of years – on the basis that the huge
leaps in technology innovation are still largely built at the expense of the environment.
Immediate reaction is possibly, ‘Oh, why do Greenpeace have to spoil everything? I just want to enjoy the Games
Immediate reaction is possibly, ‘Oh, why do Greenpeace have to spoil everything? I just want to enjoy the Games’. But that fades quickly.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataBecause, while PyeongChang 2018 is actually doing a phenomenal job in sourcing all of its needs from wind power and aiming to reduce or offset more than 100 per cent of GHG emissions, Samsung’s Fire and Marine Insurance business has opted to leave more of a ‘symbolic legacy’: 58 trees and 1,410 shrubs precisely.
They’re spread majestically over 1328m2 (that’s about a third of an acre – or just think ‘big back garden’) next to a school in Gangneung, ‘to enhance students’ environmental awareness by experiencing and exploring the benefits that nature can offer.’ I’m just luxuriating in the symbolism of it all.
In 2012 Redmandarin posted a Red Thread titled ‘LOCOG’s Sponsorship Mistake’. The piece acknowledged a masterly London 2012 organising committee performance, with one (sponsorship) exception: the sale to Partners (including BP and EDF) of a Sustainability Partner sub-brand, precisely what POCOG (the PyeongChang organising committee) has now also done.
The reasoning still holds: given the power of the Olympic
brand, a Sustainability Partner sub-brand, de facto, carries the implicit
endorsement of the OCOG and the IOC (who will have authorised this practice). Unless
Organising Committees are going to create meaningful (and preferably externally-validated)
criteria for awarding (ie selling) this status, all this practice can possibly do
is undermine the very real achievements of both OCOG and IOC.
LOCOG’s own debrief concluded that ‘The lack of definition of the Sustainability Partner designation created confusion among stakeholders, as well as the general public.’ It conceded, additionally, that this lack of definition made it ‘hard to counter’ campaign groups which ‘assumed the designation was an unjustified “award” to the six companies that had simply bought the right to promote “greenwash”.’
The IOC’s environmental intentions with Agenda 2020 are exemplary and POCOG goes to the top of the IOC agenda 2020 roll call in delivering the first Winter Games to be awarded ISO 20121, Sustainable Event Management. But the IOC really should (have) shut down this loophole
The IOC’s environmental intentions with Agenda 2020 are exemplary and POCOG goes to the top of the IOC agenda 2020 roll call in delivering the first Winter Games to be awarded ISO 20121, Sustainable Event Management. But the IOC really should (have) shut down this loophole.
It’s fascinating to infer Greenpeace’s targeting criteria and intuition.
Smartphones are a clear target: production requires minerals and precious metals which are extracted, while smartphone recycling is minimal. Samsung is, of course, one of the largest manufacturers of smartphones worldwide. While Apple for example has committed to move to 100-per-cent renewable energy sources by 2020, Samsung can’t even explain what it’s going to do with the 4.3m Galaxy handsets it had to recall.
Samsung also enjoys an unchallenged existence as a brand with strong equity and stature in developed markets (thanks in part to its Olympic Partnership), but with manufacturing bases and headquarters in a country known for permissively close ties between its chaebols and its government. So, in some senses, Samsung serves as a totem not just for the IT industry, but for South Korea, the ninth largest emitter of carbon dioxide. It’s also a representative of all businesses that generate large profits with low levels of environmental accountability.
The Olympic Games will increasingly be used by campaigning organisations such as Greenpeace because of the global platform it offers
The Olympic Games will increasingly be used by campaigning organisations such as Greenpeace because of the global platform it offers. And the IOC’s push for higher standards of sustainability will inevitably generate increased scrutiny by NGOs in the space. Agenda 2020 ultimately challenges the entire Olympic Family to meet the challenge of that scrutiny. The IOC must know that – but I’m unsure how well it’s understood by NOCs and bid cities, especially in countries unused to western communications practices and, specifically, Greenpeace’s superbly-structured campaigns. Both South Korea and Tokyo OCOGs are demonstrating insularity and a naivety about how far media and consumer interest in their event, and its governance, extends far beyond their shores.
The media bandwagon will no doubt continue to question the IOC’s ability to generate host city candidates, despite the fact that the IOC can relatively easily turn down the dials on the criteria for hosting, as we’re actually seeing very clearly now with Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles – and with ‘The New Norm’. I would suggest that the IOC faces an altogether subtler challenge.
Both the IOC and Fifa have thrown open the doors in the last 10 years. First China, then the African continent, then Latin America and, in the near future, the Middle East have all hosted inaugural events of one or the other – but this phase is over.
It’s unsustainable because the Olympics, in its current city-led model, requires not just significant financial underwriting but real population density to justify the creation of high-capacity velodromes, swimming pools or Olympic stadia. A combination which tends to come in the world’s more mature markets.
And it’s risky because, as we’ve seen in Beijing, Tokyo and PyeongChang, the other critical ingredient which the IOC needs to secure is a sophisticated communications machine capable of engaging with international media. For all its faults, Beijing 2008’s organising committee at least knew how to talk the lingua franca of journalism, politics and marketing. Tokyo and PyeongChang clearly do not; and this weak link has repercussions on the IOC.
The IOC’s former Marketing Director Michael Paine believes that people scrutinise the IOC’s actions because they care about the values the IOC seeks to uphold. I can’t disagree with his gloss, but there’s another, simpler explanation: people don’t like hypocrisy. They feel cheated, and manipulated.
The IOC can’t afford to stand back and allow the OCOG to own these mistakes. It needs to play a more proactive role in shaping and guiding OCOG communications.
Sportcal
