Carbon neutral PR company put on 'F list' for promoting fossil fuels

A certified carbon neutral PR company has been put on global "F List" for its work promoting fossil fuels through clients at Z Energy and Toyota.

The F list is list of PR and advertising companies working for fossil fuel companies.

It has been put together since 2021 by Comms Declare and Clean Creatives, two groups of ad and PR professionals trying to get agencies to cut ties with fossil fuel companies. So far the groups say 1000 agencies have signed up to swear off working with fossil fuel clients.

This is the first time New Zealand companies have been on the list, with 14 New Zealand advertising agencies identified as having recent fossil fuel clients.

The "award" for "greenwashing excellence" was given to a carbon neutral company with B-Corp status, Wright Communications, which works for Z Energy and Toyota.

B-Corps are companies that are certified as having high social and environmental performance.

Wright's 2023 Sustainability Report said it "relished its status" as trusted adviser to Toyota chief executive Neeraj Lala.

Lala and Toyota strongly opposed a proposed ban on petrol and diesel cars entering the country by 2035, saying there wouldn't be enough EVs available.

In a statement, Wright Communication's Nikki Wright said by remaining "in the tent" with fossil fuel clients, her agency could influence them to lower emissions and adopt clean technology.

"We believe that real change comes from working within, advocating for sustainability from the inside out," she said.

Z Energy was named the most self-promoting fossil fuel brand in this country, with five agencies working on its campaigns.

Z's owner Ampol was named Australia's most heavily marketed fossil fuel brand.

Z Energy said it was aware of the campaign, and the company was "committed to selling our customers the transport energy they need through the energy transition" including from its 130 EV charging bays.

Meteorological organisations around the world say 2023 was the hottest year ever, and 2024 looks likely to eclipse it.

The last time Earth recorded a cooler-than-average year was in 1976, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization, and the warmer air and oceans are already driving more intense and deadly storms.

AUT advertising lecturer Matt Halliday helped prepare the New Zealand F list.

He said although most New Zealand advertising agencies had signed up to the Ad Net Zero campaign to lower their own carbon emissions, many hadn't dropped their fossil fuel clients.

"There becomes this dissonance when you know what is happening in the world and you know what we need to do, but then you work for these fossil fuel clients as well," Halliday said.

"In New Zealand, the one that takes the cake is Z Energy's campaign from 2022, which is currently in front of the courts for greenwashing," he said.

The Moving with the Times campaign was created by agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

"That campaign started with a full page newspaper ad that had the headline 'We're in the business of getting out of the petrol business', and while they did have a slight dip in fossil fuel sales during Covid it has grown again steadily since then."

RNZ has also approached Saatchi & Saatchi for comment through its PR agency.

Halliday said advertising and PR campaigns worked well at creating support for companies that were trying to maximise short-term profit from fossil fuels.

"The PR and ad agencies working for them are doing a really good job of making people think they really do care about this and that they are making a difference, because the Kantar 2023 Better Futures report, which came out the year after Z Energy came out with the ad....found brands as a whole dropped on average about 5 per cent [in people's perceptions of being sustainable] and there were three brands that went up 6 or 7 per cent.

"They were some of the worst polluters in the country, Fonterra, Genesis Energy and Z Energy."

Consumer New Zealand, the Environmental Law Initiative and Lawyers for Climate Action are heading to the High Court alleging the oil company breached the Fair Trading Act with its claims about saving emissions in the 2022-23 campaign.

Z Energy denies its campaign was misleading.

Halliday said publication of the F list overseas since 2021 had made it harder to determine who was representing major polluters.

"It's hard to find [information]," he said. "Agencies aren't promoting the work they are doing with their fossil fuel clients any more because they know the F list exists."

"The problem is the money, right, the fossil fuel companies still have the coin and it's that short term gain over long term thinking that is the issue here."

"Maybe you can have the morals and the ethics to say, not me."

In June, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres asked all governments and businesses to stop advertising the coal, gas and oil companies, which he described as the 'godfathers of climate chaos' for misleading the public abut climate change.

The Hague recently became the first city to ban fossil fuel advertising inside its boundaries.

Comms Declare said it was writing to B-Corp, complaining about Wright Communication's fossil fuel clients.

Recently, it said, Havas was stripped of its B-Corp status for taking the Shell account.