Energy Myths
An appliance that actually makes the room hotter, rather than colder
What is a refrigerator?
Where many products end up, even after claiming they “reduce waste”
What is a landfill?
Coca-Cola was ranked the world’s #1 plastic polluter in 2022, even as it advertised bottles as 100% this
What is recyclable?
This coffee company released a "strawless lid" in 2018 to reduce plastic waste but the result was an increase in plastic waste instead
What is Starbucks?
Roughly 8 million tons of this material enter the ocean each year, harming marine life and breaking down into microfragments
What is plastic?
Believed to be the biggest energy source contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, but transportation and agriculture actually rank higher
What is air travel?
A famous fast-food chain that promised in 2018 to make all of its packaging recyclable or compostable by 2025
What is McDonald's?
Airlines and oil companies often claim to be this, even though they rely on buying offsets rather than reducing pollution
What is carbon neutral?
What is Nestle?
A drink that requires about 37 gallons of water per cup, mostly to grow the main ingredient
What is coffee?
Renewable sources of energy are now cheaper than fossil fuels, according to this intergovernmental organization
What is the United Nations?
A clothing company that created a “Conscious Collection,” but was critiqued for still mass-producing fast fashion
What is H&M?
This label is put onto a lot of food products like meat to show healthiness, but in reality has no federally regulated meaning and is simply just put on the product.
What is "100% Natural" or "All Natural"
This company is setting up a data center in Mt. Pleasant Michigan that will use about 3 million gallons of Lake Michigan in 2026
What is Microsoft?
An everyday item that uses more energy to manufacture than to run for its entire lifetime
What is a lightbulb?
Although thought to be unreliable, wind produced enough electricity to power about this fraction of all U.S. households in 2022
What is 20%
A bag of chips labeled “made with recycled content” might contain only this tiny percentage of recycled material
What is 1%?
A word, often slapped on cleaning products, that has no legal definition in the U.S
What is non-toxic?
This company is one of the largest producers of PFAS (Forever Chemicals) and continues to produce variations of the chemical to get around regulations.
What is Dupont? (Will also accept Chemours or Dow Chemical)
A tech company that announced in 2020 that all of its global operations were carbon neutral
What is Google?
This energy source is claimed by many City Bus advertisements as "Clean" fuel when it still burns greenhouse gases.
What is Natural Gas?
A corporation that coined the term "carbon footprint" in 2004
What is British Petroleum (BP)?
A brand claims this, implying its supply chain doesn’t harm the planet, but there’s no third-party audit behind the claim
What is ethically sourced?
This company is praised for its sustainable efforts but was linked to an illigal logging operation in Ukraine in 2021 to get supplies for furniture.
What is IKEA?
In 2022, a European nation that generated nearly 100% of its electricity from renewables for several days straight
What is Portugal?