09/10/2003

6 October 2003

Following a two year campaign by student network People & Planet, Esso (ExxonMobil) has cancelled its annual recruitment tour of UK universities.

According to a source inside a leading university careers service: “This year, although they did initially book presentations, ExxonMobil have decided not to tour University campuses at all.” Esso is also understood to have decided against attending any university careers fairs.

As part of the StopEsso coalition, People & Planet has been targeting the company’s campus presentations to inform potential recruits about Esso’s appalling stance on climate change.
“Britain’s supposedly apathetic students have just driven the world’s largest oil company off their campuses. We see this as a major victory for our student groups across the UK,” said Lucy Pearce of People & Planet.

Esso’s major competitors, Shell and BP, are continuing to tour UK universities as usual.
The StopEsso campaign was launched in May 2001, in response to George W Bush’s announcement that the US would not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the only international treaty to help reduce climate change. Esso was targeted by students because it has spent the last ten years sabotaging international action on climate change, refuses to accept that burning oil causes global warming and does not invest in renewable energy alternatives.

Lucy Pearce added: “The more people who refuse to work for Esso, the sooner the oil giant will have to admit to the reality of climate change and stop blocking action to control it.”

For the last two years, People & Planet student groups have given out leaflets and ‘Esso sucks’ lollies to hundreds of students at the majority of Esso’s recruitment presentations, asking them to think twice about working for such an unethical company. They employed a range of creative tactics to get the message across. At Oxford Brookes, for example, Esso staff were interrupted 20 minutes into their talk by a 'tiger' arriving to deliver a presentation on why he was retiring as Esso's mascot due to the company's earth-trashing behaviour.

Esso staff have been contacting the campaign to voice their concerns about the company’s stance. Earlier this year, a weblog appeared on a StopEsso website in the USA:

"I work for Exxon, and while I don't like your tactics, your message ought to be heard. There are many of us working for this company who believe that current management is making a mistake by ignoring or, worse, challenging the science on climate change. It's a public relations mistake, and a market positioning mistake, that other oil companies have been quicker to avoid. Oil isn't going to go away tomorrow. But then, neither is global warming, and we ought to stop pretending it will. I'd prefer to work for a company that took that problem seriously, and did more to look after my children's future."

What next?
Lucy Pearce said People & Planet would step up its campaign at universities this year, including launching an “Esso Watch” programme. She called on any students approached by the company to get in touch with People & Planet for the real deal on the company. “We can tell you what Esso doesn’t want you to know. Before you even consider working for this company, you deserve to know the truth.”

NOTE:
To verify this story People & Planet has contacted 15 leading universities at which Esso ran careers presentations in both 2001 and 2002, including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Edinburgh and Manchester. According to the information provided by the careers services, this year Esso is not running any events at these universities.

People & Planet

[Previous press release: "WMO predicts increase in extreme weather events"]
[Next press release: "Russian election politicking over Kyoto Protocol: nothing more than hot air"]