GreenFacts Foundation

From SourceWatch

GreenFacts Foundation (also known as "Green Facts") is a Brussels-based, industry funded NGO.

Funding

As is stated on its website, it was started with funding from the chemical company Solvay.

According to the GreenFacts foundation website in December 2004, it is now funded by:

• Carrefour
• CEFIC (European Chemical Industry Council, jointly with Euro Chlor and PlasticsEurope)
• Ferrari Textiles,
• P&G,
• Raffinerie Tirlemontoise,
• Solvay,
• Suez,
• "and several individual donors."

The main stated activity of GreenFacts is the production of summaries of important studies. However, as outlined below, they are now also active in the policy debate.

Who are GreenFacts?

GreenFacts claims to be: "a multi-stakeholder, non-profit organization, based in Brussels, dedicated to providing non-specialists with unbiased scientific information on environment and health matters."

It also claims to be a "nonprofit, non-advocacy organization based in Brussels, Belgium, composed of stakeholders in the environment and health debates (scientific institutions, NGOs and industrial groups)"

However, the only actual link to environmental NGOs within the governance structure is the presence of an ex-CEO of WWF Belgium on the staff, and the current CEO of WWF France as one of the 'Active Members'. However, as the web site points out, "All members of GreenFacts commit themselves on a purely personal basis. Their involvement does not constitute an official position of their other affiliations".

The use of the phrase 'stakeholders in ...NGOs' manages to imply the engagement of NGOs, whilst in fact it is only a couple of individuals from NGOs. A similar phraseology is also used on press releases and other materials, to imply (incorrectly) that environmental NGOs were involved in setting up GreenFacts, for example:

"GreenFacts was formed in December 2001 by stakeholders from the academe, industrial groups and environmental NGOs concerned about the difficulties of communicating scientific information on environment and health issues." in this press release.

In reality, Greenfacts appears to have a rather dismissive view of environmental NGO activities. Under part 12 of the climate change page, it states that "some of their publications tend to minimise some uncertainties or overstate the human influence on climate change or the likelihood of some adverse consequences". [1]

In the same section, Greenfacts redirects readers to climate-sceptic front groups such as the European Science and Environment Forum and studies produced by Dr. Fred Singer, Richard S. Lindzen, Dr Sallie L. Baliunas and Willie Soon, in addition to four other climate-sceptics websites and the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.

Summarising documents

The main activity of GreenFacts appears - at first sight - to be the publication of 'Green Facts', in the form of summaries of important reports such as the IPCC report on climate change, and the IPCS report on endocrine disrupters. These summaries are then published on the GreenFacts website.

As part of the summarising process, GreenFacts approaches experts in the field to review the summaries they are producing. Many experts have accepted these invitations, as this seems to be an entirely reasonable request. The names of these experts are then listed on the GreenFacts website, adding credibility to the organisation.

As another move to give itself credibility as an objective and balanced organisation, Greenfacts has been actively calling and emailing many organisations and individuals, including environmental groups, universities and governments around the world, during 2004 in order to establish website link exchanges. Greenfacts boasts a list of the organisations that have agreed to this on its site with the disclaimer that "these web sites are NOT necessarily endorsed by the Greenfacts Scientific Board".

Policy engagement

However, Green Facts has moved beyond summarising documents, and is now actively engaging in the policy debate. Its main target has been the European Union's Environment and Health process. The chemical industry in Europe is also heavily engaged in lobbying around this process.

Following a meeting on this process in December 2003, GreenFacts put out a press release entitled "GreenFacts reactions to the first EU SCALE consultative forum: GreenFacts welcomes the initiative and stresses the need for sound scientific approach", which quotes the GreenFacts general manager Jacques de Selliers:

"With an issue as sensitive as children’s health, it must be ensured that political pressures do not override scientific information and the need for sound methodology"

It is unclear how policy statements such as this can be reconciled with the claimed aim of GreenFacts to be a 'non advocacy organisation', and indeed the comments in this press release are echoed by a press release issued at the same time by CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council.

In addition, GreenFacts is engaging in the debate over risk communication, for example in a workshop on 2nd December 2004 at a European Commission meeting on the Environment and Health strategy.

Conclusion

GreenFacts has many characteristics of an industry-funded front group defining itself as an NGO, and claiming to have been formed by a wide range of stakeholders. It has established a level of credibility through its production of summary documents, and it now appears to be using this activity as a way of more deeply engaging in the policy debate.

The two key areas of GreenFacts engagement as an advocacy organisation are currently:

1) Promotion of "Sound science" before taking action

2) Risk Communication

Both these issues are closely linked to the debate on the precautionary principle. They are also well known priorities for chemical industry lobbying, which would provide a rationale for the Solvay and CEFIC funding of GreenFacts.

The recent addition of two companies in the food sector to the list of GreenFacts funders - the supermarket group Carrefour and the sugar company Raffinerie Tirlemontoise - suggests that GreenFacts may start working on the food sector.

Related sites

Jacques de Selliers, the General Manager of Green Facts, has a web site that links to GreenFacts, and also to a number of other websites, including:

• Green Balance, a site that claims to offer "balanced views on green issues". This site is apparently "published by two moderate individuals from both sides". For example, the section on climate change (which uses Green Facts summary information) concludes that neither energy efficiency nor renewables will solve the problem, but the answer is:
• "developing nuclear energy, which so far is, by many aspects, probably the safest, cleanest and most sustainable energy source, with a lot of potential for development."

• A link - that currently does not work - to "ToxFacts.org, a website under construction which will soon publish the ATSDR studies."

• www.sickoflawsuits.org, which claims to be a grassroots campaign against lawsuit abuse in the US. The US NGO Public Citizen has gathered information showing the role of the tobacco industry in supporting this organisation.

Other external links

• Response by GreenFacts to this SourceWatch article

• Wikipedia article on GreenFacts

• This page was last modified 15:40, 8 July 2005.
• This page has been accessed 2,751 times.
• Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2.
• Privacy policy
• About SourceWatch
• Disclaimers