Caroline Dennett’s eye was drawn to a poster with two emphatic words: “Insiders wanted.” The security consultant watched a video of protesters against the Extinction Rebellion climate riot, who had stuck to Shell headquarters in April and encouraged officers to jump off the ship to help his cause.
This week, Dennett, who runs the independent agency Clout, released a video bomb that severed ties with Shell after an 11-year business relationship. She emailed 1,400 Shell employees, accusing the £ 177 billion giant of causing “extreme damage” to the environment and “ignoring the risks of climate change”.
She believes Shell is failing to end its fossil fuel business and has called on its employees to “move away while there is still time”. She admitted that she was “privileged” to be able to make the choice to end her relationship.
Speaking to the Guardian, she said support for her decision had come from customers and people around the world. Her cause may have been aided by the fact that Shell has made huge profits from the energy crisis by damaging its public image and fueling calls for the contingency tax that has now been introduced.
Shell consultant dramatically quits because of the company’s “double talks” on climate – video
A lone troll told her, “You took the money and now run away, Princess.”
The video of Dennett dropping the microphone was the culmination of a growing sense of anxiety when working with the 115-year-old company. Her relationship with Shell began after the BP Deepwater Horizon crash, when the industry struggled to tighten safety procedures.
She studied lessons from the Gulf of Mexico and other tragedies, including bad broadcasts and pressure to take shortcuts. Clout then developed a special study for front-line workers, managers and contractors. Since then, her work has taken her to an old gas plant at Jumping Pound in Alberta, Canada, and to Qatar and Trinidad. Her in-depth research questions employees about safety processes, their training, resources, and whether managers believe they are held accountable. She has completed several such major studies for Shell, as well as other clients in the oil and gas and unrelated industries.
At the same time, Dennett is becoming increasingly involved in climate activism. She has spent time turning to councils and schools around Dorset – she lives in Weymouth – leading debates and encouraging local action, such as installing solar panels in rural halls.
“I will find that I want the councils to take their money from fossil fuels, but then I admit that I work in industry and I have to do it myself. We are all hypocrites to some degree, but that is starting to feel ridiculous, ”she said.
A protest against the disappearance in front of Methodist Central Hall in London on Tuesday, where activists violated the Shell General Assembly. Photo: Leon Neal / Getty Images
“What is clear from working with Shell’s front-line employees is that net zero is simply not talked about internally. “It’s just that issues like security and tension with local communities never come up,” she said.
But is it fair to expect an oil rig worker to be committed to his employer’s overall corporate strategy? “Yes. If it was built into the company, you would hear it being discussed all the time. “They are experts in risk management, but they do not manage climate risk,” she said.
The power of Shell’s sense of environmental impact was highlighted the day after Dennett’s video was released. At the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting at Methodist Central Hall in London, Extinction Rebellion protesters drummed drums and shouted, “Shell must fall,” as people entered.
Inside, protesters delayed the meeting by nearly three hours, shouting and singing “We’ll Stop You” to the tune of Queen’s 1977 hit We Will Rock You. The executive team sat motionless, stone-faced, watching as President Sir Andrew Mackenzie tried to calm the protesters. “It was amazing. Singing on board, you can’t get more nonviolent direct action than that,” Dennett said.
Her decision to ignore Shell comes at a price – “about 60% -70% of my business”, she admits. There is also the possibility of a lawsuit from Shell.
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This is a business she built after an unlikely trip. She was born in Merthyr Tidfil, South Wales; her father installed industrial pipes and her mother worked in an entertainment center. After studying criminal justice and later marketing, she worked in social services, including a psychiatric hospital. He spent six years in the Netherlands, working first for a nascent satellite navigation developer and then for the Canon camera company. She then worked for research agencies before creating Clout.
So what would be the reaction of the dream to her very public display of dissent? “This Shell will wake up and use all its skills, capital, human strength for a real transition. They were a pioneering company with a vision. Now they have no vision. This is a vision. The only thing they can think of is to continue what they did. I tell the leaders: look in the mirror. “
Shell said more than 75% of the £ 20 billion to £ 25 billion it intends to spend in the UK over the next decade is in low- and zero-carbon products and services. The company said: “We expect our energy transition costs to account for 50% of our total costs by 2025.
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