What is greenhushing?

Businesses' commitments to fighting climate change are regular topics of conversation. Previously, companies were called out for greenwashing, when they mislead consumers and investors about how environmentally friendly their products and services are. Now, businesses have taken to what's called greenhushing, sparking a new round of controversy.

What is greenhushing?

Greenhushing is when "companies keep quiet about their environmental goals, sometimes for fear of public backlash," according to The Washington Post. The movement is the result of a polarizing political climate and acts as the opposite of greenwashing. A 2022 report by carbon consultancy group South Pole found that a quarter of businesses "do not plan to talk about their science-aligned climate targets."

Companies face criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, with liberal-leaning parties accusing them of greenwashing and conservative-leaning parties criticizing them for taking climate change into account in business decisions. "Faced with the threats of tarnished reputations and legal trouble, some companies are instead choosing not to communicate their climate goals at all," explained Fast Company.

Many critics have actively been opposed to business environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, claiming that those factors can "distract companies from their core goals of competitiveness, efficiency, market success and delivering shareholder value," per Forbes. On the other hand, those in favor of ESG initiatives have claimed that companies are not doing enough for sustainability, leading companies to be caught in the middle.

However, the lack of communication regarding environmental initiatives does not mean that companies aren't doing anything. "Actual ESG efforts have not decreased for most companies, but how corporations talk about them has changed."

Why are companies doing it?

"If you're a CEO who has all the right intentions, you might get sued from both sides — from the left and from the right," remarked Renat Heuberger, the co-founder and CEO of South Pole, to the Post. "And that is not good news if you want to convince more CEOs to get active on climate." So businesses have taken to staying out of the conversation altogether.

Attacks on companies are "more irrational and so fierce," explained Peter Seele, a professor at Università della Svizzera Italiana in Switzerland, to Fast Company. These responses include "canceling" or boycotting companies for taking actions that stir controversy. "The easiest thing to do is just to stay out of the conversation and emphasize other facets of business that are going to be perceived as less controversial and more core to the traditional metrics of the business," said Jason Jay, a senior lecturer of sustainability at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to The Wall Street Journal.

Also, there are new laws globally cracking down on greenwashing, which, while beneficial, can encourage greenhushing. Being unable or unwilling to navigate new guidelines, "some of these firms would stop touting their sustainability for fear of lawsuits alleging they have violated these directives," per the Post.

"Any society only finds new words if there is a new phenomenon to describe," said Hermine Penz, an English professor at the University of Graz in Austria, to The New York Times. "Is it now a no-go to be green? Do companies have to hide their activities? People don't know how to talk about what they are doing."