The parent company of Aggregate Industries has been named by Sasja Beslik, the head of sustainable finance at Nordea, as the second worst company for increasing CO2 emissions in the five years between 2011 and 2016.
The CO2 culprits. These are the top 100 companies with biggest increases in CO2 #emissions the past 5 years. #globalwarming pic.twitter.com/oVkBoFsLBv— Sasja Beslik (@SasjaBeslik) January 9, 2019
It’s something to bear in mind when AI – a company that now emits some 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 each year, a fivefold increase in 20 years – tweets greenwash photos of wind farms in the setting sun:
We're determined to reduce our #emissions per tonne by improving the #energy efficiency of our production facilities. To view our 2020 #climate targets, head on over to our website 👉 https://t.co/zAqrcHgcwz pic.twitter.com/b0x0xTTmLO— Aggregate Industries (@AggregateUK) January 11, 2019
Of course, it's not just pretty photos that AI uses to greenwash its activities. Take AI’s sustainability reports; take the one from 2016, where the company claims:
We are committed to tackling climate change.
At Aggregate Industries we’ll continue our mission to cut our net CO2 emissions of all products.
We reduce our impact on climate change through the development, manufacture or promotion of innovative and sustainable products and solutions.
Unfortunately, however, AI's record is not one of cutting net CO2 emissions, nor of a reducing impact on climate change.
The chart below – which from 2016 includes emissions from two cement operations – shows AI’s commitment to tackling climate change. As we posted in The CO2 emissions that AI ‘forgot’ in 2016:
AI has talked about reducing its CO2 emissions for more than 15 years, and has achieved exactly the reverse. It is plainly in denial: denial about having to do anything to change the way it operates, denial about having to do anything to reduce its contribution to an impending climate catastrophe.
But is anyone surprised? Profits will obviously speak louder to AI – and its LafargeHolcim bean counters – than our "existential threat" to humanity.
