Environment

Climate Action RI issues greenwashing award to Chase Bank branches throughout the state

“Greenwashing is using the words from the climate movement to make it sound like they’re doing something – but they’re really not doing anything,” said Climate Action RI activist Diane Hill. “It’s all semantics. It’s a PR stunt, basically.

Rhode Island News: Climate Action RI issues greenwashing award to Chase Bank branches throughout the state

June 1, 2021, 12:08 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

“We gave Chase their Greenwashing Certificate of Achievement for doing the most ingenious, sickening greenwashing that any company has done yet,” said Climate Action Rhode Island (CARI) activist Brian Wilder as he exited the Chase Bank branch in Smithfield, Rhode Island with fellow climate activist Jeannine Giguere-Gagnon.

The bank manager took the award.

“We told them that our children and grandchildren are going to inherit a very different world because of companies like Chase that continue to fund fossil fuels,” continued Wilder. “They’re heating up the world, and there’s going to be hundreds of millions of climate refugees. It’s going to be a chaotic, violent world – and it doesn’t have to be…”

Uprise RI asked how they were received when they entered the bank.

“They were ready for us,” said Giguere-Gagnon. “The manager was sitting right there, waiting for us to come in.”

“We have no problem with the people that work here,” emphasized Wilder. “This is not their fault. It’s the corporate headquarters just maximizing profits, the hell with everything else.”

At the Chase Bank branch on Thayer Street in Providence, activist Diane Hill joined the team.

“Chase Bank is the largest funder of the fossil fuel industry in the world,” said Hill. “And just recently they announced their ‘climate goals’ which are actually deceptive greenwashing. They’re not planning to decrease their investment in the fossil fuel industry at all.

“We’re very angry and upset about it,” continued Hill.

Uprise RI asked Hill what exactly greenwashing is.

“Greenwashing is using the words from the climate movement to make it sound like they’re doing something – but they’re really not doing anything,” replied Hill. “It’s all semantics. It’s a PR stunt, basically.

Here’s more background on exactly how Chase Bank is greenwashing their environmental record.

After Thayer Street the team visited five more bank branches around Rhode Island.

The local effort of issuing awards was done in conjunction with a national effort Stop the Money Pipeline.