Construction Fence at Mass General Hospital, March 2026 Several large signs are affixed to the fence around the construction site at Massachusetts General Hospital, each one declaring what’s going up and who’s footing the bill. Passersby, when not staring at their phones, glance at these messages about the Phillip and Susan Ragon Building, the Herb Chambers Tower and the Irving Oil Limited Center for Urgent Cancer Care.
Yes, indeed, Irving Oil – a Canadian fossil fuel company that sells products definitively linked to higher cancer rates and a slew of harmful respiratory and reproductive health outcomes – has given $35 million to Mass General Brigham (MGB) for construction of a cancer care center as well as a second facility named the Irving Oil Limited Healing Garden.
Obviously, noxious emissions from burning oil are not typically associated with the healing grace of flowers. Beyond this discordance, however, what’s the big deal? Money is money. If the devil himself wants to crack his treasure chest in service of a good cause, so be it. Besides, most of us drive gas-powered vehicles and heat our homes with natural gas or oil.
Yes, indeed, Irving Oil – a Canadian fossil fuel company that sells products definitively linked to higher cancer rates and a slew of harmful respiratory and reproductive health outcomes – has given $35 million to Mass General Brigham (MGB) for construction of a cancer care center as well as a second facility named the Irving Oil Limited Healing Garden.
Obviously, noxious emissions from burning oil are not typically associated with the healing grace of flowers. Beyond this discordance, however, what’s the big deal? Money is money. If the devil himself wants to crack his treasure chest in service of a good cause, so be it. Besides, most of us drive gas-powered vehicles and heat our homes with natural gas or oil.
Such arguments are at best glib; at worst, they’re the crudest form of amoral transactionalism. Middle and low-income people – the majority of people, that is – are trapped within a system that requires the use of fossil fuels. That fact doesn’t free up a nonprofit healthcare provider like MGB to enable blatant greenwashing by a major polluter like Irving Oil, which operates gas stations in Canada and New England, oil refineries in Canada and Ireland, and a bulk petroleum terminal in Chelsea, Mass.
Our society’s fossil fuels predicament is not an excuse for MGB to convert the edict “Do no harm” into “Greenwash harm into greenbacks.”
The transaction is simple. MGB gets $35 million for their new building project. Irving Oil gets a reputational makeover (see the gauzy Facebook video touting its gift) and easy access to the MGB Board of Directors.
Our society’s fossil fuels predicament is not an excuse for MGB to convert the edict “Do no harm” into “Greenwash harm into greenbacks.”
The transaction is simple. MGB gets $35 million for their new building project. Irving Oil gets a reputational makeover (see the gauzy Facebook video touting its gift) and easy access to the MGB Board of Directors.
A fire at Irving Oil's refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 2018.
Actually not all butter; also includes mono- and diglycerides, monostearate, xanthan gum, and polysorbate 60. A great many of the board’s 25 members come from the dealmaking worlds of high finance and private equity, as well as the realms of construction, telecommunications, business software and data management, liquor distribution, and weapon systems; only four board members are physicians, including Reshma Kewalramani, president and CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, whose executive compensation came in at $21.4 million in 2024, and MGB’s president and CEO, Anne Klibanski, who collected a salary package of $8.4 million in 2024.
If, in the name of hardheaded utilitarianism, MGB insists on attaching Irving Oil to cancer care and healing gardens, then where should the line be drawn? One hopes that gifts from Vladimir Putin and the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein will be declined. Other than that, perhaps nothing is out of bounds. Through lucrative corporate sponsorships and naming deals, MGB can boldly rechristen many of its existing departments and institutes.
Behold, the Roundup Weed and Grass Killer Occupational and Environmental Disease Service; the Entenmann’s All Butter Loaf Cake Center for Weight Management and Wellness; Tito’s Handmade Vodka Center for Addiction Medicine; the DraftKings Instant Prop Bet Addiction Recovery Management Service; and, the topper, the ExxonMobil Center for Environment and Health at Mass General’s Institute of Health Professions.
If, in the name of hardheaded utilitarianism, MGB insists on attaching Irving Oil to cancer care and healing gardens, then where should the line be drawn? One hopes that gifts from Vladimir Putin and the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein will be declined. Other than that, perhaps nothing is out of bounds. Through lucrative corporate sponsorships and naming deals, MGB can boldly rechristen many of its existing departments and institutes.
Behold, the Roundup Weed and Grass Killer Occupational and Environmental Disease Service; the Entenmann’s All Butter Loaf Cake Center for Weight Management and Wellness; Tito’s Handmade Vodka Center for Addiction Medicine; the DraftKings Instant Prop Bet Addiction Recovery Management Service; and, the topper, the ExxonMobil Center for Environment and Health at Mass General’s Institute of Health Professions.
Greenwashing with rubber ducky. Irving Oil is not a greenhorn to the greenwashing game. In 2016, the company donated $80 million to Dartmouth College to establish the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, an organization that professes to champion sustainability. The gift has spawned ongoing controversy on campus.
It’s also telling to note that the new cancer care center and healing garden at Mass General were not simply named after Arthur L. Irving, the company’s deceased founder who was a patient at the hospital. Instead, Irving Oil shamelessly and strategically sought to deploy the gift in service of corporate public relations, a goal that seems to hold precedence over giving back in memory of care provided by devoted doctors, nurses and staff.
They want to rebrand themselves and MGB replies: great, fine by us. Let’s not worry about the health damage from the witch’s brew of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons produced when gasoline is burned. No more tut-tutting over climate change and the fate of our children. And really, so what if oil dependence renders us hostage to the actions of dictatorial petrostates? Anti-fossil fuel rhetoric is so pre-Trump, so reeking of moral considerations.
The building is unfinished. The construction fence can hold different signage. It’s not too late for MGB’s leadership to reconsider the splattering of Irving Oil on one of the country’s finest hospitals. Moreso, finding a less compromised funder shouldn’t be too hard. In this gilded day and age, there are more than enough mega-millionaires and billionaires out there looking for ways to reduce their taxable incomes through philanthropy.
It’s also telling to note that the new cancer care center and healing garden at Mass General were not simply named after Arthur L. Irving, the company’s deceased founder who was a patient at the hospital. Instead, Irving Oil shamelessly and strategically sought to deploy the gift in service of corporate public relations, a goal that seems to hold precedence over giving back in memory of care provided by devoted doctors, nurses and staff.
They want to rebrand themselves and MGB replies: great, fine by us. Let’s not worry about the health damage from the witch’s brew of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons produced when gasoline is burned. No more tut-tutting over climate change and the fate of our children. And really, so what if oil dependence renders us hostage to the actions of dictatorial petrostates? Anti-fossil fuel rhetoric is so pre-Trump, so reeking of moral considerations.
The building is unfinished. The construction fence can hold different signage. It’s not too late for MGB’s leadership to reconsider the splattering of Irving Oil on one of the country’s finest hospitals. Moreso, finding a less compromised funder shouldn’t be too hard. In this gilded day and age, there are more than enough mega-millionaires and billionaires out there looking for ways to reduce their taxable incomes through philanthropy.
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