Greenpeace Staffers See Red over Director’s Travel Arrangements

Amsterdam, The Netherlands –  The staff at Amsterdam-based Greenpeace Nederland are calling for their program director, Pascal Husting, to resign after it was revealed that he made his weekly commute from Luxemburg to Amsterdam, a distance of approximately 250 miles, by airplane. Flying generates large amounts of CO2, according to Greenpeace, one of the key causes of climate change, and goes against Greenpeace’s policy on greenhouse gases. Staff are also upset that the deal was apparently approved of by Greenpeace’s international director, Kumi Naidoo, and feel that the pair have done serious damage to the organization’s reputation. Husting’s excuse that “an organization like Greenpeace cannot always operate in accordance with their own ideas” was the final straw, leading staffers to lament: “It will come back on us every time we criticize politicians or organizations. As is already happening, in fact. If Greenpeace cannot do it right, then who can?”

Husting, with his young family, has previously moved twice in as many years while acting as director Greenpeace France and is therefore unwilling to move again, to Amsterdam. Driving by car would still be too polluting, so he now makes the commute by train, a journey of 6 hours each way.

Greenpeace Nederland staffers wrote to directors Husting and Naidoo, asking them to reconsider their positions. Read the letter here.