Earth Day and Corporate Reputations in Iowa
by Paul DeatonWord coming from K Street in Washington, D.C. is that all this talk about the budget, federal deficit and the debt ceiling has been bad for business. Without an omnibus spending bill, like the Affordable Care Act, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Farm Bill, or an Energy bill, lobbyist revenues are off. According to Kevin Bogardus and Rachel Leven at The Hill, “President Obama and the new Republican House have spent more time battling over the budget than crafting the kind of mammoth bills that have a big impact on industry.” Divided government has not been good for the influence industry.
Here in Iowa, there is a different kind of influence industry that is more successful, what some call “reputation management.” We have our share of lobbyists plying the State Capitol, but the influence peddling to which I refer doesn't only take place in Des Moines. Governor Branstad's planned Earth Day activities serve as a case in point.
Today, Governor Branstad is scheduled to visit a Lake Mills, Iowa landfill and nearby greenhouse that uses energy captured from from the landfill to heat the growing areas. On the surface this seems like another example of a politician making a statement about renewable energy, local business development and what energy independence looks like. We don't begrudge the governor for making this trip to promote Iowa.
The influence is not what the Governor is doing. The association of Waste Management and their corporate tagline “Think Green” with Earth Day is an example of “reputation management.” Rather than associate with the problems of landfills, Waste Management seeks to focus on a positive aspect, that they are managing the methane that escapes from the landfill by capturing it and converting it to heat that helps grow vegetables. When Waste Management does this, they are consciously managing their reputation, trying to create positives where there are negatives. The endgame is influencing the community to believe that they are “good corporate citizens.” This is good for their business.
Methane escaping into the atmosphere is bad. It is a greenhouse gas that increases global warming. One could debate whether collecting and burning it is good or bad, but such a debate misses the point that concentrating waste in landfills created the problem in the first place. The Governor's event assumes that landfills will exist with all of their problems.
We live in a society where the number of business concerns is getting smaller and they are increasing in size. Companies like Waste Management have to operate in the community because there is no place else for them to go to conduct business. They manage their reputation of being “a good corporate citizen” and hope to influence the community that they are beneficial. To a large extent they have been successful.
Some of us remember the first Earth Day. It was a time of concern about air and water pollution before there were government protections. We fought against the use of lead in gasoline, DDT on farms and many other problems with industry. When the Environmental Protection Agency was created we considered it an achievement of our movement, little realizing the power of influence that would impact the EPA during the coming decades. In that moment, we believed our government would protect us, something that during the protests against the war in Vietnam seemed unlikely. It was cause for relief and celebration.
Today, there is no movement and Earth Day has been co-opted by corporate interests. The press reports: “For more than 40 years, Earth Day has become the shining example of how organizations and individuals can work together to be more sustainable and help protect the environment and our natural resources.” It is a kind of doublespeak that omits government involvement and obfuscates the fact that corporations were once and still are the antagonists in a struggle with individuals seeking to preserve the commons. This struggle goes on despite corporate assertions about being “green” on Earth Day. ~Paul
Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend
editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail
Paul Deaton
Blog For Iowa 