A number of Irish firms certified as 'Origin Green' are said to be among the country's worst polluters.
In its quarterly 'name and shame' list, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has listed three companies from the dairy sector which scored highly under the categories of complaints, incidents, compliance investigations and non-compliances.
Arrabawn Co-Op in Tipperary, Carbery Food Ingredients in Cork and the Dairygold Co-op in Mallow, Cork all have Bord Bia's 'Origin Green' designation.
'Origin Green' is a marketing label promoted by Bord Bia, which recently spent €1m for a national advertising programme.
The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is calling on the Govenment to scrap the 'Origin Green' label, which is the only sustainability programme in the world that operates on a national scale.
IWT campaigns officer Pádraic Fogarty says: "It is time that Origin Green was exposed for the sham that it is and should be scrapped.
"Instead of being a tool to promote better environmental performance it is simply a smokescreen for ‘greenwashing’ the significant environmental problems which we face."
The group claims marketing initiatives, such as 'Origin Green', "significantly hinder" efforts at environmental protection by creating "the false impression" that all is well in the countryside.
