About the Prix Pinocchio

The Pinocchio Sustainable Development Awards (PSDA), organised by Friends of the Earth (Les Amis de la Terre) - France, are intended to illustrate and denounce the negative impacts of some French companies that behave in total contradiction with the concepts of sustainable development that they boast of extensively.

Since the international adoption of the concept of Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER), voluntary adherence has predominated, peaking during the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. See for example the United Nations Global Compact, Equator Principles banks, OECD guiding principles, ethical charters, etc.

All these commitments are legally non-binding and they are hence inefficient: while companies enjoy benefits in terms of the image they project to their shareholders, customers and citizens, they only engage in some general overall principles which are not very operational, and they are not accountable for their actions in case of non-compliance to this voluntary adherence. Although supported at the highest level by public governments that often favour the competitiveness of multinational corporations to Human Rights and environmental protection, these types of voluntary adherence have now largely proven ineffective.

Multinationals companies are taking advantage of legislative loopholes to conduct their activities to the detriment of respect of social, societal and environmental rights in the countries of the South.

Elected officials and many civil society actors, including Friends of the Earth, now require the creation of a binding legal framework at the international level to force companies to take their responsibility. The establishment of a more strict framework at the European Community level and in France is a necessary intermediate step.

Choose your Pinocchios from three categories!

To publicly denounce the discrepancy between the rhetoric on the one hand, and the reality of the actions of companies on the other hand, Friends of the Earth will, in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the famous wooden puppet and his very personal conception of truth, award three Pinocchio awards in the following categories:

- "Greener than green": award for the company which has conducted the most abusive and misleading communications campaign with regards to its actual activities;

- "One for all, all for me": award for the company with the most aggressive policy in term of appropriation exploitation or destruction of natural ressources;

- "Dirty hands, pocket full": award for the company with the most succesful policy in terms of opacity and lobbying.

These awards will be given by Internet users, on the basis of four nominees for each category. The winners will be announced during a public award ceremony on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at La Java, 105 rue du Faubourg du Temple, 75011 Paris: pour plus d'informations.

If tou like to attend the award ceremony, please register by sending an email with your name and adresse to prix.pinocchio@amisdelaterre.org .