“Carbon Partners” and Collaborative Greenwashing: The Sustainability Partnership Between Dow Chemical and the Olympic Games

Abstract

The multinational corporation, Dow Chemical, became the first-ever “Official Carbon Partner” of the Olympic Games in 2017, promising to offset the emissions generated by the staging of the Games and associated activities. This article critically analyzes the Partnership's promotional campaign, comprised of rhetorical claims that such “game-changing” collaborations are “redefining the role of business in society” in responding to the climate emergency. This particular campaign built green goodwill for a global sports mega-event and a corporation whose core business is converting fossil fuels into plastics. We highlight that this Partnership's carbon offsetting schemes appear to fail both parties’ additionality standards. We interpret this partnership as a historically significant example in the broader corporate effort to propogate a collaborative eco-capitalist imaginary that redefines corporations as partners fully aligned with state and third-sector projects to mitigate climate change.