A CAR manufacturer, a detergent company and an oil giant have been named among the UK's best "green" brands.
The survey of 1,000 marketing professionals ranked the UK's best and worst brands according to their environmental credentials.
Marks & Spencer was regarded as the country's greenest brand, followed by the Body Shop and the soft-drinks company Inn
ocent. However, the top ten also included Honda cars, two supermarkets, the oil giant BP and the detergent company Ecover.
The survey of marketing executives, commissioned by trade magazine Marketing Week and carried out by YouGov, found that burger chain McDonald's and soft-drink makers Coca-Cola were listed alongside fossil-fuel companies and the airline industry as the least environmentally friendly.
Stuart Smith, the editor of Marketing Week, said: "This survey has definitely opened our eyes to some interesting results. Who would have thought that a car company would ever be seen by marketeers as being one of the greener brands?
"This is a good indicator that many companies in traditionally high-risk environmental areas are doing a lot to change their image. It's interesting to see that massive global brands like McDonald's and Coke are not seen to be doing enough."
The survey also revealed that the UK's marketing fraternity believes Shell and Exxon/Esso to be the two least credible green brands in the UK. McDonald's features as the third least green-friendly brand, while Coke is perceived as the eighth least green-friendly.
Last night, a spokesman for Greenpeace said it was incredible that a major oil company, BP, could find itself in ninth place, beating the environmental campaigners, who just made it into the top ten.
He said: "BP are trying to go into Alberta, Canada, with a process of extracting oil which is the most energy-intensive and environmentally damaging way of extracting oil.
"This is a company that claims to have gone 'beyond petroleum'. It goes to show the extent to which their 'green wash' has been successful in certain quarters."
He said advertising and spin were playing an increasingly important role, as companies competed to play the "green card" and show they were serious about reducing their carbon footprint.
He went on: "Advertising plays a massive part in this. They have been very successful in changing people's minds through advertising, but their business models remain the same."
Kate Stephenson, an account director with Blue Chip Marketing in Edinburgh, said most companies, including those in the oil and gas sector, now had programmes to promote their green status.
"A lot of organisations have an avid social-responsibility strategy, where they support certain initiatives and work with charities to foster the perception that they are green," she said. "It's much more important with the current political climate and the green agenda. Companies have to be seen to be promoting green issues."
The full article contains 482 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
