While business played a lower profile at COP15 than in the past, there was at least one memorable PR moment that holds important lessons for businesses on how to build -- or damage -- a reputation for sustainability.
 
The example I want to use is from the small Dutch energy company, Essent B.V., now owned by German multinational RWE.

In the fall of 2009, Essent launched an innovative public relations campaign leading up to the UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen.They bought 100 electric vehicles and chose 100 Dutch students to drive the green scooters to Copenhagen and engage in educational activities en route. Students had to apply and those deemed most committed to climate action drove on The Road to Copenhagen (R2C).

Essent also launched a fun viral campaign in support of R2C. The promotional YouTube video shows young men and women happily scooting to Copenhagen, with slogans like "Generate ideas with other people" and "Present your solutions @ COP15." Essent positioned itself as a big supporter of youth civil society who were driving to make their opinions on climate change heard in Copenhagen.

The drive took 10 days, with youth participants stopping each day to hear lectures on clean energy, climate and sustainable development. Dutch media covered this in various formats.

R2C participants learned a lot -- many of them did not have much in-depth knowledge of climate change in advance, but became increasingly committed as they gained exposure "On the Road." R2C also developed a "Climate Manifesto," which they intended to present to fellow Dutchman Yvo de Boer when they arrived in Copenhagen.

This all sounds good. (If you work for an energy company, you might wonder why you didn't think of it). The trouble is that this actually is an example of light green reputation-building at best, or deep greenwashing at worse.

Why so?

First of all, the parent company RWE is a longtime target of Greenpeace for their clean coal and nuclear programs. Essent can't avoid this association with happy scooters and a viral campaign -- indeed, NGO activists met the scooters at the German border and handed each of the drivers a lump of coal.

Some of the scooter-kids were a bit confused and embarrassed -- they didn't know about RWE or the clean coal controversy. They couldn't imagine why anyone would protest their fun clean drive. This made them appear like ill-informed, superficial tourists rather than knowledgeable members of the social movement on climate change. The "real" NGO activists tried to educate them about RWE's poor track record on renewable energy in Germany.

Then, when the scooter-kids arrived in Copenhagen, three went immediately to the Bella Centre (the site of COP15) to present their manifesto directly to Yvo de Boer. Coincidentally, this was the same infamous Monday where thousands of official observers from civil society and science were held up outside the conference gates for eight hours, with no food, drink or toilets.