Around the turn of the year, I saw several articles claiming how 2023 was going to be the year of social justice litigation – that activists will increase their use of the courts to compel the behavior they are seeking from companies. The article in the url below gives some credence to those claims – this time taking advantage of a recently passed law in France:
"Danone, the French dairy giant, is being taken to court by three environmental groups who say it has failed to reduce its plastic footprint sufficiently, in a lawsuit challenging corporate social responsibility in the face of the climate crisis."
Specifically:
"The groups accuse Danone — one of the world's top 10 plastic polluters, according to a recent study — of 'failing to live up to its duties' under a groundbreaking French law that requires large companies to address their environmental impact and has opened ways to sue them should they fail to do so."
The more aggressive tactics are being driven by impatience with the pace of change and a sense that time is running out:
"By suing Danone, ClientEarth and the two other groups, Surfrider Europe and Zero Waste France, are hoping to shed light on what many scientists say is a global plastic crisis whose potentially devastating effects have yet to be fully understood. … In 2015, [plastics] were responsible for 4.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, one recent study found, more than all of the world's airplanes combined."
And, as I have noted before in prior newsletters, this is not a small problem, while Danone is far from an innocent contributor:
"Figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that, over the past seven decades, plastics production has soared from two million metric tons (there are about 2,200 pounds per metric ton) to more than 400 million — and is expected to almost triple by 2060. Danone alone used more than 750,000 metric tons of plastic — about 74 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower — in water bottles , yogurt containers and other packaging in 2021, according to its 2021 financial report."
Danone, perhaps unsurprisingly, claims to be making meaningful progress on reducing the level of waste for which their products are responsible:
"The company said that it reduced its plastic consumption by 12 percent from 2018 to 2021, and that it has committed to use only reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging by 2025. But Danone is not on track to reach that target, according to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which set up a voluntary program with the United Nations for big companies to address plastic pollution."
Nevertheless:
"Only 9 percent of all plastics ever made have been recycled, according to the United Nations, with most of the rest ending up in landfills and dumps."
The law that the activists are using to sue was passed in France in 2017:
"It requires large companies to take effective measures to identify and prevent human rights violations and environmental damages throughout their chain of activity. Impetus for the law came from the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, in which the collapse of a clothing factory killed more than 1,100 people in Bangladesh. Labels from famous brands were found in the rubble, casting a harsh light on the garment industry and prompting politicians and rights groups around the world to press for more corporate responsibility. The French duty of vigilance law, the first of its kind in Europe, has since inspired similar legislation in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as a proposed European Union directive."
I'll be keeping my eyes open to see if this tendency towards litigation is a trend that will pick up pace this year, and beyond. While this is a substantive way in which stakeholders can hold firms to account, there is also the danger that the interests of the minority are prioritized over those of the majority, who might not support the action being pursued in court.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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Danone Sued Over Its Plastic Use Under a Landmark Law
By Constant Meheut and Catherine Porter
January 10, 2023
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
B3
