The Greenpeace Retailer Seafood Sustainability Survey and Ranking is a shopworn tactic meant to embarrass retailers and dictate their seafood sourcing practices while generating publicity and dollars for Greenpeace and establishing it as an arbiter of environmental virtue.
Surveys are a tried-and-true PR gimmick intended to capture media attention and Greenpeace’s annual “rank and spank” supermarket ranking and scorecard on seafood sustainability is no different.
The Greenpeace survey is not a measure of your commitment to sustainable seafood. It is merely a scorecard on how closely you align with Greenpeace’s own standards. Greenpeace does not recognize any other organization or certification standard.
You cannot win. Never in the survey’s five-year history has a retailer scored better than 65 points on a 100-point scale.
Retailers who complete the survey are privy to the results only when they’re published in Greenpeace’s annual publication: Carting Away the Oceans.
The latest edition of Carting Away the Oceans (CATO V) told consumers to “Eat less fish. Reducing seafood consumption now can help lessen the pressure on our oceans…” Greenpeace is telling your customers to buy less fresh, frozen and now shelf-stable seafood.
By completing Greenpeace’s survey, retailers simply open themselves up to the activists’ subjective, non-scientific evaluation of their business, while simultaneously helping Greenpeace raise dollars from old and new members.
There is no credible methodology behind the survey.
The Greenpeace survey is not a valid statistical instrument. It is filled with leading and subjective questions that steer to predetermined conclusions. Greenpeace has consistently refused to share its survey methodology with any independent academic or professional research organization. This alone should raise serious doubts about the validity of the survey results.
After years of trying to dictate grocers’ fresh and frozen seafood sourcing, Greenpeace now wants to tell you how to run your shelf stable seafood aisle too. Don’t let them fool you. You are already acting responsibly and sustainably.
The leading canned tuna companies, Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist, devote significant resources to the health and sustainability of tuna populations individually and through the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). No one has more reason to keep tuna flourishing in the oceans than the people who depend on those tuna for their livelihoods. When you buy from these companies you are sourcing sustainable brands and private label tuna.
Greenpeace literally does nothing to study, improve or participate in efforts to limit bycatch, and it devotes zero dollars to tuna sustainability research.
Yet despite its highly publicized antics, Greenpeace has refused to participate in important efforts to limit bycatch or fund scientific research. You have nothing to fear from Greenpeace.
The survey is not a measure of your commitment to sustainable seafood but only a report card on your compliance with Greenpeace’s own standards.
Greenpeace does not endorse any seafood certification program, including highly reputable organizations like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA).
You are not alone. Greenpeace conducts similar surveys targeting everything from toy packaging to sneakers to your flat screen TV. These surveys are routinely ignored by consumers and have little, if any, impact on sales.
Greenpeace’s scorecard campaign is nothing more than a tired ploy to get media attention and appeal for donor dollars.
Retailers can deny Greenpeace the opportunity to “rank and spank” grocers by simply declining to participate.
Don’t waste your time filling out a survey you can’t possibly win.
