New surrealist campaign tells UK firms fuelling deforestation: “It’s not just business”

At the centre of the new campaign is a surrealist short film: a corporate chief executive – golf putter in hand – presides over a space that is part office, part rainforest, as orangutans scramble for safety through lines of desks.

Speaking in corporate jargon about “fast-tracking cost-cutting measures” and “getting ducks in a row”, he shrugs off environmental destruction by summarising that “you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs”. At that moment, a bulldozer blasts through the wall, trashing the environment, to which he concludes, “it’s just business”.

The unsettling film highlights the jarring reality of how corporate decisions made by some UK businesses are fuelling deforestation, climate breakdown and human rights abuses around the world. It challenges the business-as-usual mindset that treats environmental devastation as nothing more than a line in a balance sheet.

Friends of the Earth is calling for urgent change through a new Business, Human Rights and Environment law. This legislation would hold UK companies to account for environmental harms and human rights abuses that happen during the making and delivery of products. It would also enable affected communities to seek justice in UK courts.

The campaign asks the public to sign a petition in support of the new law.

Sienna Somers, nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:

“This campaign deliberately blurs the line between the everyday corporate world and the destruction happening in forests thousands of miles away. It’s a wake-up call to recognise that some of the products we buy and companies we trust are often linked to grave environmental and human rights abuses. It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re asking the public to get behind this campaign and demand a new law that works for both people and planet.”

ENDS

“It’s not just business”: Friends of the Earth is calling on the UK government to protect people and planet with a new law – the Business, Human Rights and Environment Act. Harm to people and planet isn’t “just business” | Friends of the Earth