Do environmental and other non-governmental groups need to get into bed with big business in order to change its behaviour? The question is preoccupying NGOs as the number of them forming partnerships with corporations grows.
Greenpeace, the environmental group, decided some years ago that the occasional corporate partnership on specific issues could help it to achieve its goals. It has mounted campaigns on chemical pollution and climate change, but on the issue of wind power it decided that offering practical solutions was a better option.
Laptop Battery Accordingly, it helped npower - a company owned by RWE, the German utility giant - to promote Juice, a renewable energy product, to thousands of consumers in the UK as a clean energy option.
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Thinkpad Not everyone agrees with Greenpeace partnering with npower. The World Wildlife Fund, for example, refuses to work in any way with RWE because it burns coal in power stations and operates nuclear facilities. Other critics say such partnerships do not create lasting change.
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Microsoft In the case of Greenpeace, its partnership with npower led to the creation of the North Hoyle wind farms off the coast of Wales. The second offshore wind farm in the UK, North Hoyle produces Juice for the national grid and is marketed jointly by npower and Greenpeace.
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Laptop Computers David Threlfall, npower's chief executive, told a conference on corporate-NGO partnerships in London this week that npower has "not sacrificed economic performance to partner with Greenpeace" and spoke of the "common ground" the two found in marketing wind power.
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Laptop Computer Mr Threlfall said the number of Juice customers had leaped from 5,000 to around 50,000 in five years, far more than either organisation had expected.
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Desktop Computer While the desire of Greenpeace to tackle climate change was the driving force behind the partnership, both parties stressed that the product had to be competitively priced to appeal to consumers.
Notebooks Despite widespread awareness of climate change, and a strong desire for green products among consumers, Stephen Tindale, the head of Greenpeace UK, said there "shouldn't be an extra cost [to consumers] to doing the right thing".
Lenovo The value of the partnership for Greenpeace, Mr Tindale said, was in "getting green electricity out of the green ghetto".
Hard Drive The organisations jointly decide how to market the product to customers. Greenpeace pushes Juice to its supporters, taking no income from the arrangement.
Travelstar Mr Threlfall spoke of the "serious brand value" his firm had gained for Juice by working with a well-known NGO. He said that, without Greenpeace, sales growth and customer loyalty for the product would not have been as high. "Consumers will not pay premiums for environmentally friendly products," he said.
Gateway The alignment between Greenpeace and npower seems set to last longer than some other such corporate/NGO partnerships, which are often philanthropy-driven and peter out after several years.
Laptop Parts The venture with npower is one of only three corporate partnerships Greenpeace has entered. The other two were a campaign with the Co-op Bank to remove PVC in credit cards and another with the retailer Iceland to promote their greenhouse gas friendly "Kyoto" refrigerators.
Software Corporate-NGO partnerships have their critics on the left and the right. Rightwing groups, such as the Washington DC-based non-profit organisation CSRWatch, claim that business engagement with activist groups undermines democracy as NGOs are not elected and are not accountable in the same way that companies are.
Hard Drives Left-leaning groups argue that such alliances amount to "greenwash" efforts on the part of large companies attempting to clean up their image on the cheap. Handing over several million pounds to an NGO over a few years is peanuts compared with the costs of real change or a global advertising campaign, they say.
Electronics Michael Jacobson, of the American lobby group the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, says: "Organisations that receive substantial funding from companies don't want to offend their supporters. It's natural."
Canon Despite the criticism, NGO partnerships with companies seem set to increase as a growing number of non-profit groups around the world approach business to fund their efforts to tackle social and environmental problems. Many activists hope to change corporate practices along the way.
Desktop Pc Mr Tindale, from Greenpeace, describes such alliances as "difficult". The key to the successful relationship between Greenpeace and npower, he says, is that the group maintains its independence and in no way endorses npower's other products and activities.
"Have we gone soft?" he asks. "No".
