Buchanan Renewables: Questioning it’s sustainable image

SOMO research showed that Buchanan Renewables (BR) ─ a company that produces biomass and which presents itself as a highly sustainable venture ─ did not fulfil its promises to the farmers in Liberia. The report Burning Rubber also uncovered irregularities in the regulatory framework for BR’s operations. There were negative impacts on the Liberian charcoal market as well, and the corporate structure was questioned, as it could easily be used for tax avoidance. Particularly in Sweden this item received a lot of attention (BR is partly owned by Swedish electricity giant Vattenfall), including on television (Swedish TV 4), and questions were asked in Parliament by the green party. The Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad published an article about the report.

The activities of Buchanan Renewables (BR) involve using old unproductive rubber trees for the production of biomass. The company agreed to clear the old trees from smallholder farms in Liberia, then replant new seedlings, provide maintenance for the first seven years, and build a new local power plant.
The report shows that a number of the smallholder farmers that should be benefitting from the company’s operations are in fact worse off as a result of their relationship with the company. Smallholder farmers have expressed concern that the company has not lived up to verbal price agreements, does not conduct proper maintenance on the young rubber trees, and in several instances cut down old trees but never produced woodchips from them. These trees are left on the fields, blocking access for the smallholder farmers. “Several farmers indicate that they live in poverty as a direct result of the activities of Buchanan Renewables”, says SOMO researcher Tim Steinweg.

These findings were published in November 2011 in the report Burning Rubber. Buchanan Renewables’ Impact on Sustainable Development in Liberia, published by SOMO and Green Advocates. The report contributed to SOMO’s goals as it empowered both local NGOs and the small farmers in Liberia. They have formed a union and voiced their demands to the company. BR organised two meetings with them and some (though not all) of the farmers’ demands are currently being addressed. The smallholder farmers that feature in the report have indicated that their situation has improved as a direct result.

This study on the Liberian company Buchanan Renewables illustrates the new integrated research approach that SOMO started in 2011. The study does not just offer an insight into the activities of one company and how it implements its CSR policies, but it also tackles broader economic justice and supply chain issues.
It offered relevant information to European NGOs to raise questions about biomass as a sustainable solution for energy production and to remain critical of the way biomass is used in Europe to fulfill the EU target of 20 per cent electricity generated from using renewable sources in 2020. One particular purchaser of – and shareholder in – BR’s biomass activities, the Swedish electricity company Vattenfall, was questioned in Swedish parliament about the way its biomass is labelled ‘sustainable’.

Finally, the study on BR had links with SOMO’s global tax justice campaign, and it fuelled debate in the Netherlands about the country’s role as a tax haven by providing new evidence about potential tax evading techniques.

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Politics stirred up in public debate about sustainability of energy companies

Partly thanks to the campaigns of Greenpeace and SOMO's research, a political and public debate has arisen in the Netherlands in recent years about the usefulness of new coal-fired power stations. All six of the coal-fired power stations which were scheduled to come online in 2007, when SOMO carried out this research for the first time, have been delayed or cancelled.

In 2010, SOMO carried out research for the fourth consecutive year into the sustainability of the energy companies which are active in the Netherlands. This research forms the basis for the Energy Company Gauge of Greenpeace. This gauge shows clearly, each year, which of the companies active in the Netherlands is the most sustainable throughout its business operations.

The SOMO research is published in the autumn each year, and provides an overview of the sustainable generation capacity of energy companies, how sustainable the electricity is that they supply to consumers, and how much they invest in sustainable and non-sustainable new power stations.

Greenpeace uses a score on the basis of the data provided by SOMO and indicates which company it considers to be the most sustainable, and which the least. The launch of this gauge is accompanied each year by public campaigns, targeted at companies which are building new coal-fired power stations. In 2008, for example, Greenpeace poured 20 tonnes of coal in front of the head office of E.ON in order to draw attention to the dangerous consequences of their plans to build a new coal-fired power station.

Greenpeace also set up a campaign website, at which consumers can send a letter to E.ON, to call on them to stop these investment plans. To date, 78,706 people have sent such a letter. In addition, Greenpeace has formally lodged objections to all the coal-fired power stations to be newly built in the Netherlands (six in total).

Political party Groen Links has emphatically spoken out against new coal-fired power stations, and has started the Kappen met Kolen (‘Stop Coal’) campaign. A political debate has also arisen regarding the purchase of the coal used in these power stations, and there have been cross-party calls for measures to prevent coalmining in countries such as Colombia and South Africa leading to breaches of human rights. In 2010, SOMO is asking all electricity companies where they buy their coal.

The political and public debate about new coal-fired power stations, and the objections which Greenpeace has formally submitted, have clearly been successful. All six of the coal-fired power stations which were scheduled to come online in 2007, when SOMO carried out this research for the first time, have been delayed or cancelled. But delays are, of course, not enough. Real success will only come when all the plans for new coal-fired power stations have been called off. 

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