Clean Petrol: Are Topaz Greenwashing?
What makes a fossil fuel clean? An ‘additive package’, according to Topaz fuel stations in Ireland.
British Petroleum famously defined the term ‘greenwashing’ by spending more money advertising their research on alternative fuels than the research itself. Topaz, who are not an oil company, might not fall into the same category but labeling their pumps ‘clean petrol’ and ‘clean diesel’ is bound to raise a few eyebrows.
Last year, we witnessed some kind of branding takeover. Every Shell and Statiol station became a more friendly looking ‘Topaz’ and this is only the beginning. The ambitious company aims to become one of Ireland’s leading brands and this means expanding into new products and services.
Coca-Cola offered Ireland a bottle of water with nothing more than a slogan (Deep River Rock - ‘water you wear’). Their success shows that marketing can often be more about brand-presence than a real feature of the product. Topaz, who have mentioned going into bottled water, might be thinking of the same model.
But there is a difference. Deep River Rock never tried to claim there was anything unique about the water beyond it being cool. The words spring or mineral don’t appear on the label. Clean is a more substantive claim.
The additive package they talk about supposedly leads to a 3% efficiency boost. The details of exaclty what this is are difficult to find. ‘The science bit’ of their leaflet simply posits a few sums and the result is a big number - ‘reduces CO2 emissions by almost twenty thousand tones a year’.
Put in a wider context, senior management are touting a national saving of 25 million liters nationally. Cleaner, perhaps, but not many of us would think that washing a single plate makes a dishwasher load clean.
Part of Topaz's Clean Fuel Leaflet. No sign of what the additive actually is. They must have thought that one was over our heads!
Fuel efficiency depends so much on driving style and engine parts that the advantage of an additive can quickly disappear. Perhaps Topaz should also have mechanics on standby offering to make your car ‘clean’ by replacing your old sparkplugs with ‘clean’ (new) ones.
Does anyone really care? One way or the other, a lot won’t. The belief that driving efficiently=driving clean tends to be reserved for a certain type of person. Not everyone is quite so ‘into the whole green thing’ and even at that we all have our own opinions on what it all comes to. By the same token, if you’re of the opinion that CO2 is harmless and climate change is a lie, then ‘clean’ won’t mean much to you anyway.
Topaz’s contribution will be credible if the answer lies in slightly slowing down certain processes. Otherwise, they probably shouldn’t claim to be a part of the solution and most people would read ‘clean’ as an attempt to do this. If this isn’t greenwashing now, a then it might not be long before it backfires.
