Former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s new book, Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life, examines the erosion of citizenship and democracy by consumerism and capitalism (a topic near and dear to my heart). Last week, he bolstered his argument by examining the trend of corporations jumping on the green bandwagon. Reich turns a skeptical eye to the corporate social responsibility movement, flagging British Petroleum’s “Beyond Petroleum” campaign as a particularly egregious example of corporate greenwashing. He argues that corporations are not to blame for their environmental record since “it’s naive to think corporations can or will sacrifice profits and shareholder returns in order to fight global warming.” That job, Reich concludes, properly belongs to governments.

Although Reich doesn’t explicitly call for increased environmental regulations, he implies that regulation is the best strategy for forcing corporations to be environmentally accountable. Multinational corporations, surprisingly, are beginning to support this stance - but it is still anathema to many small or medium-sized businesses. What’s your position?

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