PricewaterhouseCoopers gets it right

Or at least, one Leo Johnson, partner for sustainability and climate change at PWC.

At the end of an article in the WSJ–an article that’s mainly about corporations finding excruciating new euphemisms for “we’re cutting our social responsibility budgets because we can”–comes Johnson’s flash of honesty:

“If governments provide a strong legal framework that aligns incentives with business, then you have something you could call sustainability. If not, then corporate social responsibility will just be glacé cherries on an unsustainable cake.”

In other words, corporate talk about sustainability (like the talk in the rest of the article) is just talk. Government has to change the framework that businesses work in so that businesses’ interests align with ours.

This is exactly right. It’s refreshing to see someone–someone not a lefty blogger–actually say it.