Mitsubishi Greenwash exposed at Sustainable Living Festival over Bluefin tuna stockpiling

Well done...if something isn't done quickly to stop Mitsubishi the Northern Blue Fin Tuna will be extinct by next year. People need to be told so they can see through Mitsubishi's greenwashing. This issue desperately needs action!

I'm still amazed that the organisers of the SLF thought that having Mitsubishi as a sponsor was an acceptable thing to do!
Seriously, someone REALLY needs to start doing their homework before they get paid.

Well done to all those involved! It is awful what is happening with bluefin tuna, and is disappointing that so few are aware of their plight, or the involvement of conglomerates such as Mitsubishi in their rapid demise. It is great to see such a small group not only spreading the word but managing to force Mitsubishi out of the festival. I am saddened though that the organisers, once they were informed of the facts by the activists, still apparently chose to defend Mitsubishi and their greenwash.

Is the Northern blue fin tuna different to the ones that are farmed in South Australia?

I think that you need to look-up the definition of "greenwash". Producing, marketing and selling what is perhaps the lowest environmental impact car available on the market today is NOT greenwash. I agree, that what some of Mitsubishi trading subsidiaries are doing to the world's tuna stock is disgraceful, but get your facts straight please. What would have been more useful was for the protesters to have actually outlined what the relationship between the companies involved in tuna fishing that mitsubishi owns and Mitsubihsi Motors actually is (i think you'll find it pretty tenuous and complicated), rather than demonising a company trying to do the right thing with Brownwash and shallow facts. Further more, if you are going to hand out leaflets, have some guts and integrity and put your contact details on them - shame on you. Believe it or not, people are going to be driving cars for a while to come so technology and products such as electric cars are something that the environmental movement should be supporting or at least giving a fair go. Mitsubhishi's tuna trading subsidiaries could care less about your protests, all you have done is deny people the chance to be exposed to this great technology - think about it.

It is a shame to see "Sustainable" Living Festival organisers publicly and aggressively defending companies implicated in the extinction of animals. A quick google reveals Mitsubishi Motors provides the engines used in tuna reefers, dolphin banger boats and whaling vessels so they are definitely implicated in the destruction of these species. I hope next year the organisers of the festival remove the word "Sustainable" from the festival title if they intend to continue aggressively backing such companies.

BTW nearly all electricity in Victoria comes from brown-coal power stations such as Hazlewood so the gain to the environment from these vehicles is debatable, especially considering the massive energy input in manufacture, shipping etc (also mostly derived from fossil fuels), so awarding them the term "sustainable" should be treated with embarrassment rather than pride by the organisers.

David reckons the protesters should have left contact details on the pamphlets yet all he leaves is "Dave" - he's a hypocrite.

The argument that Mitsubishi Motors Australia is a seperate entity to the global business & therefore should not be affected by criminal or morally bankrupt actions of its related entities is disingenuous.

The chain of management command & ownership is what matters. Those at the top of that chain are valid targets for whatever actions any of the collective subsidiaries or related entities.

If I owned two companies & commited serious crimes through one, why should my other company (which may be where my assets are hidden) be exempt of any liability? Australian Corporation Law has the concept of related entities (companies that have the same shareholders / directors - whether subsidiaries or not) and we are in Australia so it makes sense to consider Mitsubishi Motors Australia at least a related entity even if its not a subsidiary.

In short, there's every reason to criticise any division of Mitsubishhi for the crimes committed by their global owners / managers.

@ David
"Believe it or not, people are going to be driving cars"
Yes they are...but if everyone stays quiet about what the Mitsubishi Corporation are doing to our planet (as it appears you would prefer) then it is guaranteed that the cars will outlive Bluefin Tuna and many other species of marine wildlife.

Saying Mitsubishi Australia are not related to the Mitsubishi conglomerate, is like saying Sensis, or Bigpond, have nothing to do with Telstra!

Having an electric car does not cancel out all the environmental destructive practices this company is involved in...and why has it rushed to be the first...so they can say that they are the first in an attempt to brainwash people into thinking they are green.

@Curious The tuna farmed in Port Lincoln in South Australia - Southern Bluefin Tuna - is a separate species to that fished in the north, and is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened species. "Farming" involves capturing the tuna from the wild, then fattening them in pens for 3 to 5 months prior to slaughter and shipping, 97% of which end up in the Japanese tuna market. The tuna are fed 10 to 25 kilos of local and imported sardines, anchovies, mackerel, red bait and squid per kilo of weight gain - many of these species are also threatened with overfishing.

David, Hi there, my name is Mary Verikios.... i think you are the person that I spoke to from the SLF when I orginally called them to raise the issues for which the protestors stood for over the weekend. I have come to this conclusion because the the statements you have have above are very similar in nature and words used to what was told to me by the SLF representative over the telephone. I apologise if I am incorrect in my assumption. Also you will note that when I address you I use my full name, you have not provided your full name which obviously is your choice but I find it also rather contradictory when you you are going to have a crack at soemone else for not leaving their details. I dont think people were denied the opportunity to be exposed to their "great technology", rather i think people were made aware of all the information before they make a choice, at the end of the day Mitsubishi were present and operating their stall as per normal and I find it hard to understand how a handful of people holding signs would "deny" exposure to the public. In all probability they increased it ! I certainly i know as a result of these wonderful demonstrators bringing awareness to the issues that I have gone away and done a lot of my own research, so your statement is quite invalid. No one is going to argue the point that cars such as this which offer low environmental impact are a wonderful thing, but only a representative of the SLF would fail to see that there are other makers of these vehicles on this market. I am personally very saddended that the integrity of this important festival has been marred so badly by a choice SLF made which was based on money and not principals.

I am not part of SLF and I do not represent SLF. I was at the festival wishing to look at the electric car when I was harrassed by the protesters and had a flyer shoved in my face. I have always been attracted to the festival and their promotion of positive solutions to the environmental issues the world faces, rather then focusing on all the bad/negative side of the issues which plenty of other organisations take care of. I felt that the pamphlets being distributed were very one sided and that the link they were making between the vehicle on display and the fishing activities was weak at best and it was being portrayed in a less than honest way - so I felt the right to respond to the news item when I came across it on IMC, as it was likewise less than complete in explaining the facts.

please read my post again. I am not saying that you should ignore any links one company has to another, I am saying that it would be more useful and honest to actually explain that link, rather than spreading ignorant assumptions that they are all just part of one big bad Mitsubishi Conglomerate. After spending a couple of hours myself trying to find the links, it was pretty hard. All I came up with is that Mitsubishi Motors is a public company which Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) owns a minority stake in. MHI also owns some other companies which are engaged in very questionable fishing activities. In case you are not aware, once you are a publicly listed company, you have very little control over who buys/owns your shares.

To the anonymous post above, I put it to you that if you were part of a company trying to make an electric car, and another company who owns a small share in your company, then goes and invests in third company who are engaged in environmentally damanging activities, do you honestly believe your company should be vilified? honestly? i think not.

"Mitsubishi Motors provides the engines used in tuna reefers, dolphin banger boats and whaling vessels" - are you serious? Are you saying that because a company chooses to buy a part from Mitsubishi and put it in their boat, then it is Mitsubishi's responsibility for everything and anything the boat does? Or is it just that Mitsubishi is much easier for you to target than the actual companies engaging in the activities??? I do agree that they could make a stand and make sure every boat they every sold a part to did not engage in any such activities, but again none of this was even mentioned in the leaflet distributed by the protesters - that is my point. The leaflet and the first post above very much alluded to the fact it was the same company making the electric car that is fishing and stockpiling the tuna, which to my knowledge is far from the complete truth. "The Mitsubishi conglomerate is also responsible for killing over one third of endangered bluefin tuna".....please elaborate, and please make sure you articulate whether the activities are illegal or just ethical/morally questionable - in which case perhaps it is the japanese or international law which you really have the gripe with.

sorry Mary but you are incorrect. I am presumming from your post that you were one of the protesters or at least involved with them in some way? I did not wish to give you even more power than you deserved and therefor I took your pamphlet and left without engaging with any of you. Once I actually read the pamphlet it made me quite disappointed how biased it was. I have never spoken with you and these arguments/points I have honestly and magically came up with all on my own. hhmmmm perhaps there are other people out there who aren't part of the SLF/Mitsubihsi conspiracy who don't agree with you and the way you portrayed the issue!!?!?!

writing on an internet forum is a little different to printing flyers and criticising a company in a public space. I was an anonymous member of the public when I was approached by a protester, and that is how I feel I have a right of reply on this forum. I am sorry thou, I didn't articulate my point properly - I wasn't wanting the protesters' names on the flyer, just an email address, a website or some way to contact them to follow up on the points they made and allow some discussion and accountability rather than distributing flyers with some very strong language on it, that is factually questionable and then slip away into the night! I totally agree with you that it is important that "people were made aware of all the information before they make a choice" - that was my argument in the first place. You/the protestors DID NOT make the public aware of ALL the information, just a small slice of the truth that you painted the way you wanted it to be.

I think that what is being done to the Tuna population and the marine ecology around the world is disgusting and our generation will be seen as environmental vandals by future generations, not to mention the devastation we will see in our own lifetimes. But get your facts straight and give people the whole truth if you are going to engage in negative smear campaigns, otherwise you do nothing but spread ignorance and misunderstanding. In my opinion the protest at the festival was misguided, misplaced and opportunisitc. If you have a problem with the "Mitsubishi Conglomerate" than take it up with them, not one of their part-owned subsidiaries who have absolutely no control or influence over another one of the part owned subsidiaries - if this is even the case!!! none of the posts above gets me one inch closer to understanding the truth about the relationships alluded to or what illegal or unethical activties are actually taking place or Mitsubishi Motor's role in them.... (except that the fishing boats my have Mitsubishi motors in them - we will have to make sure that all those car companies are blamed for all the deaths that happen on the roads, as it must be their fault, rather than the owners who drive the cars....)

Thank you to those who spoke out about this issue at the sustainable living festival. The Bluefin Tuna stocks have reached a critical level and if the fishing does not cease, they will become extinct.

In reading the comments of others regarding this article, I have to say that I agree that Mitsubishi are engaging in unethical practices. It is misleading to portray the company as sustainable when they are involved in environmentally destructive practices.

Those attending the festival would have gotten the impression that Mitsubishi were a green company based on the fact that they were the major sponsors. This is untrue. Their affiliation with the destruction of a species is inherently not sustainable. It has a cataclysmic effect on the oceanic ecosystem. This cannot be justified in any way.

While several Mitsubishi group companies are complicited in wiping out bluefin tuna, the Mitsubishi subsidiary Toyo Reizo (including their associates such as Tuna Queen) is directly responsible for 40% of the slaughter.

I think we should definitely hear both sides of the story. For example, let's see what mitsubishi motors Australia has to say about it's relationship to mitsubishi corporation

"Mitsubishi Motors Australia is part of the global Mitsubishi Motors organisation and is fully owned by Mitsubishi, one of the world's largest companies.

Our Global Interests
As a Mitsubishi owner, you're part of a company that touches the lives of people all over the world, in more ways than you might imagine. In Australia alone, for instance, we have interests in Information technology, petroleum and LPG, mining, shipping, aircraft manufacturing, electronics, textiles, consutruction, farming, food production and of course, cars."
Source: http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au/company/about/profile/about-us/overview

Here's some info from the other side:

"Mitsubishi Corporation (UK/Japan)
The world’s largest tuna trader! In 2006, it was responsible for 35% of
the world trade in sashimi-grade tuna. Its tuna trading subsidiaries
include Tōyo Reizo and Sanyo Foods Co. Ltd. Mitsubishi is involved in
overfishing of tuna in the Mediterranean Sea and in Indonesia, with
roughly 20 to 30 percent of fresh tuna from Indonesia sold at
Japanese auction markets through Toyo Reizo. Mitsubishi
subsidiaries are also widely involved in tuna ranching of blue fin tuna
in the Mediterranean. Tuna Queen, a Toyo Reizo Co Ltd. subsidiary,
is by far the largest operator of specialised tuna reefers (refrigerated
cargo vessels that collect tuna from vessels at sea). Such transfers at
sea are the major way that tuna can be “stolen” as tuna is transferred
without any monitoring or control."
Source: http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/facts-...

So mitsubishi motors Australia love to tell their customers that they are part of a big family of companies that have involvement in all kinds of great things, like mining and petroleum, but it would be wrong and dishonest for a non-mitsubishi customer to look at the more ugly members of this family.

i was at the festival, i dont think the protestors were harrassing anyone they were very friendly and caring people and i reckon its just great they could tell everyone what Mitsubishi are up to and i cant think why anyone would want to buy one of their cars now coz i know i wouldnt

Thank you Ivan for some more factual information regarding the issue. However, it is not Mitsubishi Motors Australia that have made the electric car, but Mitsubishi Motors (Japan), so the quotes you included aren't quite so relevant to the wider issue of which companies are actually involved in which activities. I do acknowledge that it was probably Mitsubishi Motors Australia that were the ones holding the stall at the festival. I find it interesting that you choose to reiterate activities such mining, I am sure that you are aware every single one of us lucky australians has benefited from mining in some way, I am not endorsing mining, I just think you should get real when discussing such issues. If you truly disapprove of activities such as mining, then please do not buy/own/use any item that has metal or plastic in it - just the tip of the mining/oil output iceberg - otherwise you are as much a part of the mining process as the miners, according to the logic put forward in this discussion). Lastly, what you accuse Mitsubishi of - portraying their activties in a one-sided unblanced way - is very similar to what I am accusing the protesters and their flyer of - portraying the activities in a one-sided unbalanced way!!! Unfortunately when you are the making the judgements and criticisms, I think it is only fair that you have the same or even higher standards than those you are criticising, which the protesters clearly don't when it comes to transparency, openness and balance. They were trying to dirty the Mitsubishi name and any companies/products associated with it, and they chose to brush over any points or complexities that didn't endorse their point.

My question is, do you honestly think that the sum total of the protests, flyers and continued discussion has made one ounce of impact on the fishing activities? It seems they have been more damaging to the electric car and the sustainable living festival than the fishing actitives. So if that was the aim of the protesters, well done you are awesome, you are so good, I hope you are really happy with yourselves. But if you are actually trying to get something done about the fishing activities, you failed dismally.

All I was trying to say in the first place is that the protests were opportunistic, misguided and misleading. PLEASE PRESENT US WITH THE FACTS. IF YOU ARE GOING TO ACCUSE A COMPANY OR PEOPLE OF GREENWASH, THEN YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO BE VERY CLEAR AND TRANSPARENT IN DEALING WITH THE FACTS AT HAND. The flyer distributed, in my opinion, was not clear at all and used very similar marketing talk to that which companies accused of greenwashing use, portraying the information in a way which leads the reader to the conclusion you want them to, rather than providing it in a balanced and transparent way.

Lastly, thank you to the post by Fungi. You have illustrated one of my points perfectly!!! I expect to see the protesters outside coles and woolworths handing out flyers to anyone who is considering purchasing any tooheys, national foods or dairy farmers products.....and good luck working out which ones they are, or being able to not purchase them in a weekly household grocery list considering the huge number of products that make/own. But just make sure you aware that YOU ARE DIRECTLY DESTROYING THE WORLD'S TUNA POPULATION, THAT'S RIGHT IT IS YOUR FAULT THIS IS HAPPENING BECAUSE YOU DRANK THAT TOOHEY'S BEER.......SOUND LOGIC? I THINK NOT. Oops now that is it the everyday working class aussie that is involved in this Mitsubishi conglomerate and responsible for the fishing it isn't quite as fun and easy to protest against as a big company is it....but where should the involvement and accountability stop, perhaps it is time to target the companies actually directly involved with the activities, not associated companies and people who have not only have NOTHING to do with it, but are actually trying to do the right thing....

Dave, for someone who does not endorse mining or bluefin tuna fishing you are spending a lot of time TRYING to bring down people who are actually doing something about it, confused much ? the protestors did provide the facts, they were not misleading in anyway, and to top it off you become very emotional and get rather ranty in response to their facts, to me this is a clear sign of progress, well done to the protestors and if you ever need a hand just holler.. cheers

You are obviously very keen on supporting Mitsubishi and attacking environmentalists David - but how about revealing your true motivations for your lengthy and avid posts? Let's be blunt, no truly dispassionate observer merely "wishing to look at the electric car" would find the time, desire or verbosity to repeatedly defend a keiretsu implicated in repeated environmental destruction across the conglomerate.

I suspect that Dave's true motivations for his lenghty posts are driven by the fact that he is associated with Mitsubishi or the SLF. I realise in a previous post he said that he is not, but I am not inclined to believe this as his posts are almost hysterical in nature and this appears to be arising from some financial damange that was caused by the protestors when the Mitsubishi stand was brought face to face with their shameful ways and they could no longer dupe the public (in the immediate area at least).

Often in cyberland the punctuation, use of captilisation of letters and "inverted commas" in the written message is a clue as to the emotion and clearly young Dave has some motivation behind it (cha ching). Dave is as transperant as a soggy tissue at this point in time.

Can anyone confirm whether Nikon is part of Mitsubishi conglomerate?

If so it might be time to look for a new camera brand