Greenhushing prevalent among firms struggling with net zero
Businesses are intentionally scaling back communications on their sustainability efforts, as the find going green is harder than they expected. A new study from South Pole has also found that a growing number of firms are pegging their net zero hopes of ‘technology’, while downplaying the impact they can make with the use of renewables, or addressing the emissions of their supply chains.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) centricity is playing an increasingly important part in economic and wider societal debates. With investors increasingly keen not to be caught out by backing companies that do not take environmental risks seriously, most companies have now come to the realisation and understanding that proactively improving upon ESG issues is tied to healthy business outcomes.
However, according to South Pole’s latest annual Net Zero Report, rather than using this as motivation to push ahead with their sustainability targets, many organisations are attempting to obscure their net zero performance. The study spanned 12 countries and 14 sectors, surveying 1,400 companies in the process. It found that the majority of respondents in nine of the 14 sectors were intentionally decreasing their climate communications, otherwise known as 'greenhushing'.
The move comes as firms who have talked a good game on climate goals suddenly find that they have been struggling to actually walk their talk. Over the last decade, multiple studies have shown that while most firms now have made pledges on net zero or carbon neutrality, a majority also have little to know way of measuring progress, or have considered the impact of their supply chains and ‘Scope 3’ emissions on those plans.
In this context, South Pole – which also produces a labelling system to help firms verify their climate claims – found that only 23% of firms were finding it less difficult than expected to deliver on net zero. And while the largest portion of 45% said the journey was just proving as difficult as they anticipated, a worrying 28% said that the move was harder than they first thought. At the same time, the study found that of the firms who claimed to be on track to meet their net zero dates, 84% said they would do so by 2030 or sooner – suggesting that some of the 28% who admitted to struggling might be leveraging a slight of hand.
Indeed, while 81% of companies also noted that communicating net zero was good for their bottom lines – getting an edge on their competitors and attracting conscientious consumers – many are not exactly wedded to doing so regularly. A number of entities are finding it harder to communicate their climate action due to a lack of progress – and 58% of those organisations are deliberately planning to decrease their level of external communications.
Fear of scrutiny from investors was promoted as a top reason for this greenhushing. In particular, 51% of respondents in environmental services work, and 57% in the oil and gas sector, said they were reporting less regularly. With scrutiny around fossil fuel use reaching new levels after the mixed results of COP28, these actors might think that they are boxing clever – but it may be a move which backfires.
John Davis, the interim CEO of South Pole, commented, “Our latest Net Zero Report finds a continuing and deepening contradiction between taking corporate climate but choosing not to communicate around it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of global companies are doing nothing at all, with no public targets to show. It is possible that our research findings are simply an indication of a corporate 'hush' before the regulatory storm, which will inevitably require all companies to communicate their climate impact and progress on net zero goals. As corporate climate action continues to mature, now is the time for business leaders to meet the moment, and openly share both progress and challenges on climate action, so that we can monitor this and also learn from mistakes."
South Pole also found that the priorities of firms seemed to have notably shifted away from concrete action, and toward deploying technology for their climate goals. Even as research continues to suggest that supply chain emissions are the ‘missing link’ in the world’s net zero drive – accounting for the majority of most companies’ emissions – greening supply chains has fallen from the third-top priority in 2021, at 48%, to seventh in 2023, at 27%.
Similarly, using renewables, and improving resource efficiency have fallen from favour, compared to technological solutions and removal of carbon via technology. This line of action might reveal an extra facet of greenhushing – of appearing to do something by investing in vague, half-developed ‘innovations’, while avoiding definitive action that might inconvenience a firm’s current operations.
