Protest groups target three Olympic sponsors

Human rights and environmental pressure groups have joined forces in a campaign against three sponsors of the London Olympics.

The protest campaign – called Greenwash Gold 2012 – has Dow Chemical Company, BP and Rio Tinto in its sights.

Meredith Alexander, who quit as a commissioner of the 2012’s sustainability watchdog in protest over the link between the Bhopal disaster and Dow Chemical Company’s involvement with London’s Olympic Stadium, chaired the campaign launch.

The group has made three short animated films about the companies and members of the public will be invited to vote online for the “worst corporate sponsor of the Olympics”.

Ms Alexander said: “The Olympic values are all about celebrating our common humanity. But the Olympics is also big business. There is an expensive machine behind the Games that is funded by corporate sponsors.

“Sadly, when these sponsors are selected, money talks much more loudly than values.

“I know first-hand just how little scrutiny is allowed when sponsors are chosen. Greenwash Gold 2012 is a chance to turn this around by letting the public vote for the least ethical sponsor.”

All three companies have defended their ethical record.

Up to 15,000 people died and tens of thousands were maimed when poisonous gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in central India in 1984. It is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001 and denies responsibility for Carbide’s Bhopal liabilities.