What is greenhushing?

greenhushing (noun)

The intentional downplaying of corporate sustainability goals to avoid public comment and uninformed scrutiny.

First came the greenwashing movement, with climate and sustainability activists calling out organizations for marketing themselves as environmentally friendly while continuing to engage in damaging practices. Then — in the U.S., at least — came a political backlash against environmental, social, and governance principles, with officials in West Virginia, Louisiana, Florida, and other states condemning ESG investing.

Caught between these competing forces, some companies are engaging in greenhushing — deliberately going quiet on net-zero and other carbon-reducing goals they may previously have touted to their stakeholders and the public.

Greenhushing is not new, said MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative director Jason Jay. Large companies in particular have, at times, felt the need to turn down the volume on their sustainability focus, Jay told the World Economic Forum. “Making claims ratchets up people’s expectations, expectations lead to greater scrutiny, [and] that scrutiny can lead to a kind of ‘gotcha’ phenomenon,” he said.

However, widespread greenhushing has the potential to hinder climate ambitions and lessen overall transparency. At smaller businesses in the U.S. and Europe and larger firms outside those regions, “greenhushing could be a problem if it slows the expansion of the norms into that new terrain,” Jay said.

What is ‘greenhushing’ and is it really a cause for concern?