There are two times a year that we really get inundated with press releases: Christmas and Earth Day. Both seasons annoy me, as everyone all of sudden tries to be green, and sometimes I think, “Why are you sending me this?” Recently, I received the following from a Lockheed Martin:
Earth Day is this week on April 22, and it’s a great time to get your kids interested in environmental conservation.
I thought you might be interested in sharing with your readers the Green Reading List that Lockheed Martin is encouraging its 140,000 employees to read to their children at home leading up to Earth Day.
At home, Lockheed Martin employees are encouraged to read to their children from the Green Reading List, which includes a fantastic selection of new and classic books for all ages with pro-environment messages. Books on the list for elementary school-age children include:
Elementary School:
– The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (Anymore) by Stan & Jan Berenstain
– The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
– The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein
– Pee Wee and the Magical Compost Heap by Larraine Roulston
– A Day in the Salt Marsh by Kevin Kurtz
– Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
– The Dragon and the Unicorn by Lynne Cherry
– Forests for All by Melanie Richardson Dundy
Although I agree many of these books are wonderful and reading to your child is a developmentally appropriate manner to teach them about the environment, I can’t get past this list came from Lockheed Martin. Don’t they know I’m a peace loving hippie? Or, maybe I am missing something about the company?
Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs approximately 140,000 people worldwide. With the incredible reach of Lockheed Martin’s network, the organization is capitalizing on the opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of individuals – starting with their employees, families and communities – so that as a corporation, they can make a big impact one small action at a time.
Hmm, how could Lockheed Martin make “a big impact one small action at a time”? Isn’t “global security” a euphemism for large war profiteer? CorpWatch reports:
This Bethesda, Maryland-based company is the world’s #1 military contractor as well as the world’s largest arms exporter. Lockheed Martin built the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird spy planes. Today they make F-16, F/A-22 jet fighter, Hellfire and Javelin missiles, as well as designing nuclear weapons. Its F-117 stealth attack fighters were used to “shock and awe” the population of Iraq at the start of the US invasion, while since the start of that war the Air Force has increased production of Lockheed’s PAC-3 Patriot missile – which cost $91 million per copy.
Furthermore, Lockheed Martin tested toxic drinking water on humans!
On behalf of military contractor Lockheed Martin, Loma Linda University is conducting the first large-scale tests of a toxic drinking water contaminant on human subjects — a precedent medical researchers and Environmental Working Group condemned as morally unethical and scientifically invalid.
The Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 27 that Loma Linda Medical Center in San Bernardino is paying 100 people $1,000 to eat a dose of perchlorate every day for six months. Perchlorate is a toxic component of rocket fuel that damages thyroid function, preventing healthy development of fetuses and children and causing cancer.
This is why I hate Earth Day…On its 40th anniversary, the day has turned into a corporate greenwashing event. Read The Lorax to your child, not because Lockheed Martin told you to but because you love your child and the earth.
Yes, Jennifer, my peace-loving hippie friend, you are missing something about the company. Lockheed Martin is one of the world’s most significant producers of solar electric generation equipment, mostly deployed in space. And isn’t “war profiteer” just a dysphemism for “protector of the free world”? Lockheed Martin is a green company, not a greenwashed company. Everywhere on campus you see recycling, bicycles provided for employee use, transit passes as a job benefit, and contests for best ideas on reducing electricity consumption.
I saw your post regarding Lockheed Martin’s green initiatives in honor of Earth Day, and just wanted to let you know that Lockheed Martin is taking an active role in focusing attention on resource conservation – and an innovative approach in raising awareness of energy and water conservation among its employees – and with 140,000 employees, each small action their employees takes can make big changes.
Lockheed Martin’s employee-based initiative surrounding EE Week is just a portion of the corporation’s overall Go Green business strategy. Lockheed Martin is committed to reducing its overall energy usage by building and operating greener, more-efficient buildings, embarking on Green IT activities, constructing on-site renewable energy projects and purchasing renewable energy credits. The Corporation also ranks among the top 50 organizations in the country in green power purchases based on kilowatt hours of power used, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Partnership. The Corporation’s long-term absolute goals through 2012 are to reduce carbon emissions, waste to landfill and water usage – each by 25 percent.
I just wanted to make you aware of what Lockheed Martin is doing as a company to be greener – not just for Earth Day and EE Week.
@Aaron and @Allison: Could you do us a favor and give us your job descriptions, please? I don’t want to read defenders of a greenwashing company if they sound–as you both do–like employees of the LM PR Department.
Does anyone else find it ironic that “The Giving Tree” always ends up on green reading lists? I love that book, and I love Shel Silverstein, but I think he was rightly cynical in that book about mankind’s relationship with nature.