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Sierra Club Boots Florida Chapter Over Clorox Deal
The Sierra Club voted this week to suspend its entire 35,000-member Florida chapter for four years and removed the chapter's leadership. The reason? The chapter openly criticized the Club's decision to partner with Clorox for Clorox's new "Green Works" line of "natural" cleaning products.
The dispute between the Florida chapter and the national organization started in December, when Sierra Club's national board of directors overrode the Club's Corporate Relations Committee to approve the deal with Clorox. So far, details about the exact nature of the agreement have not been revealed, except for the fact that Clorox will pay the Sierra Club for its sponsorship and the use of its logo on Green Works products, with the exact amount depending on product sales.
This is the first time in Sierra Club's 116-year history that it has endorsed a product and even Club executive director Carl Pope, who's been a driving force in the partnership, admitted that the decision by a well-known environmental group to endorse a company known for its bleach, plastics, and chemical products is "controversial." Just one example of the conflict of interests inherent in such a partnership: In the same month that the Sierra Club decided to put its logo on Green Works products Clorox was fined $95,000 by the EPA for donating illegal, mislabeled, Chinese versions of its disinfecting bleach to a Los Angeles charity.
Clorox's history of environmental malfeasance (they were called one of America's most chemically dangerous companies by U.S. PIRG in a 2004 report), has made opponents of the deal quick to call the Club a sell-out bereft of green street-cred. "The Sierra Club has become little more than another corporate front group," said Tim Hermach of Native Forest Council. "Carl Pope has sold out the Sierra Club's mission of saving nature and now seems proud of his role as an obsequious and professional Uriah Heep."
But to me what's really galling is not so much that the Sierra Club agreed to take profits from the company that makes Armor All, Formula 409, and Liquid Plumr. It's that the Club dealt out such a harsh punishment to its Florida chapter for even daring to voice opposition the deal. Such an action smacks of lock-step, corporate stoogery, not dedication to environmental protection.
I never imagined that I would live to watch America die, but despite advanced age, heart disease, cancer, PPS, GERD and misc. other annoyances?I MAY. Even tho I am as inured to startling influences as a middle eastern "democracy" salesman, this caught my breath. Funny, I wuz just walking in a magnificent stand of mature jack pines and thinking of John Muir's treetop antics. Woe betides the times indeed.
I never imagined that I would live to watch America die, but despite advanced age, heart disease, cancer, PPS, GERD and misc. other annoyances?I MAY. Even tho I am as inured to startling influences as a middle eastern "democracy" salesman, this caught my breath. Funny, I wuz just walking in a magnificent stand of mature jack pines and thinking of John Muir's treetop antics. Woe betides the times indeed.
I'm disappointed in The Sierra Club as well. I don't think one line makes Clorox a company to support and I'm also disappointed to hear they suspend a whole chapter just for voicing their opinion. Bad form on their part I say.
WTF Sierra Club! This is yet another reason why I do not support the Sierra Club (along with drowning Glen Canyon and letting us down on RARE II). Not only has the SC sold out to corporate America, but they are stymied by a byzantine organizational structure, if you really care about the environment give your money to the Nature Conservancy, or The Wilderness Society.
fascist corporate lackeys
Former Florida Chapter leaders reply
The National Sierra Club Coup
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/3/27/154642/778#comment30
Power corrupts even progressives. That is why it is good to keep power and authority dispersed and not centralized. The Florida Chapter member should not send their money to headquarters. They should start their own off shoot. It is good to disperse. authority.
wanna buy CLOROX branded 'green' products?
weeell, that would mean supporting ALL THE OTHER BIO-toxins Chlorox & Co produces.
Rather like buying KRAFT foods... is just benefiting the FrankenFood & BigTobacco engineering of our increasingly toxic markets...
ask yourself: how does a GOOD PERSON become a BigTobacco researcher?
think about it, & you'll understand why YOU shouldn't keep FEEDING THE BEAST that preys upon your Families.
~~~
Spread Love...
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can be found @
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"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
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"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"
We should all stand behind the Florida group and form a new organization.
This has been a'brewing for two decades, ever since Sierra Club caved in to putting Mobil (or was it Exxon -oops, now they are one!) on their Board of Directors. It would be really interesting if someone could find out the Board vote at the Club on this, who voted for and against. What do you expect when a Board of Directors is controlled or heavily influenced by organizations whose meager commitment to the environment, social justice or whatever is to commodify that dynamic into one product and lead the corporate charge with that one product, while everything else they do hides behind their newfound greenness.
Finally something we Floridians can be proud of, a principled stand!
I recently got a "come back to the Sierra Club" mailing. NO WAY. I can't believe they've sold out like this. While I'm glad Clorox is trying to get its act together, they have a very long way to go before they can be considered a green company.
I believe I will cancel my membership in the Sierra Club, or at least not renew it, unless the national leadership reverses its position on suspension of the Florida chapter.
Agree.
So the national Sierra Club grabbed its '30 pieces of silver' and sold out their integrity to corporate America when they made the deal with Clorox. Then they come down hard on the Florida chapter who voiced opposition to selling their organizational soul to the corporate devil in this deal. I'm glad to hear that the Florida chapter maintained its integrity. The national organization continues to mail me requests to rejoin but as long as they're in bed with corporate interests known for the poor environmental track record, they won't see another penny of my money!
I never imagined that I would live to watch America die, but despite advanced age, heart disease, cancer, PPS, GERD and misc. other annoyancesI MAY. Even tho I am as inured to startling influences as a middle eastern "democracy" salesman, this caught my breath. Funny, I wuz just walking in a magnificent stand of mature jack pines and thinking of John Muir's treetop antics. Woe betides the times indeed.
I realized the Sierra Club had sold its soul a few years ago, when they supported developers who were planning a massive project in an already congested part of Vienna, Virginia. Part of this deal involved the feeling of about 300-400 healthy trees. If I'm not mistaken, Clorox also now owns Burt's Bees. Is there a pattern here?
Well, doesn't THIS suck? Yeah, we all recognize the greenwashing that Clorox Corp. is doing as it produces and pushes a small but important new "green" line of cleaning products ... as it peddles killer chemicals and chemical household products (with the ubiquitous killer Chlorine being the core of its business). Its kind of like GE making wind turbines and tagging themselves "Eco-magination", or GM greening themselves with E-85 Ethanol as it just got done shredding its secret electric vehicle program. I agree ... stop feeding the Beast! Oh, and as for the Sierra Club: Goodbye! Floridian Sierra Club members: You GO! ... and You Keep Going & don't look back!
What was secret about GMs electric vehicle program, they lost about $1 billion and canceled the program. Now they have technologically leaped past the Japanese with their new two mode hybrid system that works both on the highway and in the city, and have initiated new alternative energy programs. The Volt plug in electric hybrid is supposed to be able to achieve an average of 150 MPG for the average commuter, and it's design is loosely based on some work done on a prototype hybrid version of their EV1 electric car. I've also herd that an E85 powered version would emit an amount of CO2 equivalent to a 500 MPG car. Admittedly corn ethanol isn't a solution to our energy problems, but if cellulostic production can be perfected then corn E85 will have been a great stop gap / transition fuel to wet our appetites for the better version. I've also heard that GEs new diesel electric trains are the most efficient in the world, and that they are one of the few products that we export to China because they're that much better than the cheap sweat shop crap made there. I think assaulting genuine efforts at green products is counter productive, but a nature advocacy group getting money for green product endorsements does reek of a dirty payoff, and when you add the booting of an entire chapter it definitely stinks.
Actually, the Florida chapter was suspended due mismanagement by their executive board - it had nothing to do with the Clorox deal. The national org's investigation into the Florida chapter began well before the Clorox deal every materialized. Read all of the comments in the Grist post Karen Orr linked to above. The Florida board had hijacked the chapter and the chapter's volunteers asked for natl involvement. Now the ousted chapter leaders are spreading a smear campaign against the national staff and are invoking the Clorox deal even though it had nothing to do with it.
Learn all the facts before making a decision, folks!
Holly is absolutely right. The facts of this case are not at all honest or clear in this blog. The chapter's suspension had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the Clorox deal. There have been enormous issues with the chapter and its myopic leadership for years. Agree or don't agree with the partnership with Clorox, but the national club did the absolute RIGHT thing in suspending the Florida chapter.
I hate to tell you all, but MotherJones has completely misinterpreted the reason for the Florida Chapter's suspension. It is only a convenient coincidence for the media that the suspension coincides with the Clorox deal. The Florida Chapter has been suspended due to corruption within the chapter itself, having nothing to do with anything national, much less the Clorox deal.
The Chapter is just trying to turn blame away from itself.
Joanie, stop telling these lies. You are a hypocrit. Shame on you.
To "Holly," "Truegreen," and "Joanie"
I don't know anyone from the Florida Chapter by these names.
You are hiding behind pseudonyms to make false claims.
State your names, cite your evidence for your statements.
I don't know why you are hiding behind pseudonyms to make false claims about matters you know nothing about but it is sad to see.
Karen Orr
Gainesville, Florida
In response to the original post:
Yikes! Is it really true?
What's happening to the world when we can't trust a (formerly?) beloved environmental/ecological group?
Holly is right. I am a Florida Sierra member and for years, these so-called Florida leaders have run the chapter for their own purposes, not to protect the environment or for progressive causes.
Florida Chapter volunteers welcome the intervention of the national to get this chapter and the environmental movement here back on track. These state "leaders" were devisive and obstructed anyone who won't bow down. Good riddance.
The investigation isn't over. Sierra is going through the books and looking into some funny stuff that went on.
Thanks Sierra national leaders!
florida sierra member, you are divisive and not a uniter. You are causing the chapter to disintegrate. Repent. You speak lies like a few of the others.
With all due respect to her anonymous persona, Joanie may need to be more cautious with her comments. National said Chapter leaders were divisive. "Corruption" is not the same as "divisiveness". Your word choice is both a unique interpretation of National's action and seems like slander to me. Did you not get the letter from National or participate in the comment conference calls? Please don't throw around words like "corruption" recklessly and anonymously. The Suspension is about power and politics. The Clorox "deal" is one part of a trend toward a weaker,more compromised, and less grass-roots Sierra. The elected volunteers who were Chapter leaders were overthrown with the help of Florida members who were losers in previous elections and/or policy discussions and then complained to Florida Staff and National Leaders. The dissidents and National were both interested in the coup that took place. That is the real story.
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