By Manny R. | March 12th, 2026

Corporate greenwashing and exposing frequent consumer deceptions are very large issues, and this blog first broached this topic this week. There are many well-known examples; however, for this week’s blog post, we will look at Shell and BP.

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The Promise

In Canada, Shell claimed their company could be “carbon neutral” by offsetting Shell’s fuel emissions through forest-based carbon credits. Shell had a program called the Drive Carbon Neutral program that launched in November 2020. With a simple 2-cent per liter surcharge on gas purchases,  Shell claimed the fuel purchase was now “carbon neutral”. To the average consumer, this seemed like a beneficial way to vote with their dollar to offset their contribution to the planet’s warming. Unfortunately, that was a complete lie.

 There was an investigation into the matter by Canada’s Competition Bureau. Only after Shell removed all information about the program from its website was it closed.

BP’s Case

 Shell wasn’t the only company to have this bright idea. BP had to stop advertising its engine oil and lubricants as “climate neutral” since a German court found that the company’s carbon offset purchase from a forest protection project in Zambia wasn’t enough to claim that its products were carbon neutral in September 2024.

​Why You Should Care

This isn’t rocket science; these companies bought credits and pretended that means they can claim their products were “carbon neutral”. It’s hard for the average consumer to believe that a big company would blatantly lie about something that is verifiable. And the companies know that, that’s why they greenwash.