Green, Inc.: An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad

Green, Inc. is a riveting first-person account of an eco-warriors travails at the crossroads of the nonprofit and corporate worlds—one that will shock anyone who has ever made a donation to an environmental group.

NGOs that once dedicated themselves solely to saving pandas and parklands today vie for the favors of mining operations, logging companies, and homebuilders. Among the most generous donors are the biggest environmental scofflaws of all—energy conglomerates. Being a leading conservationist today means (in addition to a six-figure salary) scuba diving with rock stars and partying with corporate scions and celebrity journalists aboard gas-guzzling private jets and yachts.

How do conservationists justify such dealings? The most common refrain: being tight with corporate leaders will help them change their polluting ways. However, argues MacDonald, the companies are benefiting far more than endangered species. While providing an essential overview of the global environmental movement, she centers her story on what goes on inside the worlds top conservation groups, examining the truth to claims that they have allowed themselves to be silenced by corporate dollars as environmental crisis looms.

MacDonalds fast-paced narrative flows from carefully checked facts, her own powerful first-hand anecdotes, and interviews with other insiders. A scandalous snapshot from inside a good cause gone bad, Green, Inc. comes at a time when global warming nears the point of no return and more people than ever are awakening tothe consequences.

She was in for a shock.

• Environmental organizations that together have more than 15 million members and operate in over 100 countries—including Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, The Natural Resources Defense Council, The Conservation Fund, Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon Society, and Greenpeace

• Leading conservationists, such as Peter Seligmann, Conservation Internationals cofounder, chairman, and CEO—renowned for his jet-setting ways and his finesse at cultivating ties with big corporations; and Adam Werbach, the former Sierra Club president, who defected in 2006 to work as a consultant for Wal-Mart, which hed once called a “virus, infecting and destroying American culture.”

• E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., General Electric, Eastman Kodak, ExxonMobil, Nissan, and Dow Chemical—which donate millions of dollars to top environmental groups in return for their lavish praise despite being named as among Americas top ten worst corporate air polluters.

Christine MacDonald, a journalist who has written for the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune, was formerly manager of the Media Capacity Building Program of Conservation Internationals Global Communications Division. She lives in Washington, DC.