In 2008, I co-authored an article with Jerry Stifelman, my business partner at the time,   entitled “Greenhushing Doesn’t Help Anyone: Why Green Businesses Should Speak Up.”  A competing set of trends prompted the article. 

First was a rise in so-called greenwashing, or deceptive and inaccurate efforts to market “green” products. Sometimes the greenwashing was blatant, with outright distortions or misrepresentations. And sometimes it was subtle, or even inadvertent. But either way, it ran the risk of misleading consumers and causing a backlash because of a distrust of “green” claims.

Equally troubling, though, was an opposite tendency we were beginning to see among our clients— true green standard-bearers who were unwilling or reluctant to promote their efforts. 

Read more: Sustainability has evolved. So have we.

We dubbed this phenomenon “greenhushing.” Even though humility might be seen as virtuous in many cases, we argued that in this instance it was actually setting sustainability back. Our argument was two-fold: 

• We needed influencers: Businesses couldn’t just operate more sustainably. They had to also encourage others to step up their game.
  
  
• We had to expose the fakers: It wasn’t enough to avoid greenwashing yourself. True leaders should be proactive in striking a contrast between themselves and those who were misrepresenting their efforts. 

A decade and a half later, Greenhushing is clearly having a moment. It’s entered the academic lexicon. Publications including the New York Times, Adweek, Bloomberg and Mother Jones have written about it. And a 2022 survey of major businesses by a Swiss consulting firm revealed that one in four companies were planning to “go green and then go dark.” 

For sustainability to become truly sustainable, we desperately need companies to communicate truthfully and ambitiously about its importance. 

What Exactly is Greenhushing? 

Given the very real reputational, legal, and litigation risks of greenwashing, it’s perhaps understandable that some companies are becoming reticent to communicate on sustainability. If we’re going to get called out for claiming to “go green,” the thinking goes, then maybe we should stay silent and continue our work in private. And in my role as Director of Communications Strategy here at thinkPARALLAX, I have heard from several clients that their companies are reticent about speaking too loudly about their sustainability efforts—often for fear of inviting litigatory or even regulatory risk if something could be perceived as being misrepresented. 

But, there are several problems with this approach: 

• Communicating mission is a core part of executing mission: If companies are genuinely committed to change, then truthfully communicating their efforts is an important part of influencing their peers. That’s because it helps to raise the bar for everyone, and to establish sustainability and social responsibility as a prerequisite for the moral license to operate. 
• Avoiding scrutiny doesn’t help anyone: Some observers argue that greenhushing should be considered a subset—rather than the opposite—of greenwashing. That’s because it is sometimes practiced to avoid criticism or accountability. Yet while staying out of the spotlight might be tempting from a short-term, risk management perspective, it is also not without risk. Scrutiny pushes us to be better. And by removing one of the drivers for progress and innovation, we create false incentives for continuing destructive or harmful practices. As historical examples like tobacco, and asbestos have shown, ignoring the destructive or harmful impact of your business model can lead to delayed, but devastating, consequences.
• Why leave money on the table? Staying quiet about legitimate green practices risks leaving very real money on the table. Investors are increasingly weighing ESG performance alongside financial performance when deciding where to park their money. And we know for a fact that consumer demand for better business practices is growing. As just one example, Gen Z, the generation that will have the most purchasing power in the country by 2030, is  far more likely to consider sustainability or social responsibility in their consumer purchasing decisions than they are factors like brand recognition. 

OK, so hopefully we’ve established that Greenhushing is ultimately self-defeating. But what should we be doing instead? 

Read more: How to embed sustainability into the structure of your business

“Greenblushing:” Or The Art of Keeping it Real 

‍Around the time we published the original greenhushing article, Jerry Stifelman and I were working for Larry’s Coffee, a fair trade, organic coffee roaster. We had recently launched a supposedly biodegradable bag, which won a huge amount of positive acclaim in industry press and from consumers. We quickly discovered, however, that the reality sold to us by our suppliers was not at all what it was cracked up to be. Not only did the bag not biodegrade in the landfill as promised, but activists and packaging experts argued that, even if it did, this was not the environmental benefit that we claimed it to be.

Larry quickly nixed the bag. But rather than simply quietly backtracking on our commitment, we chose to amplify the conversation so that others could learn from our mistake—creating a short video and handing the mic to our critics.

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I’ve come to think of this video as an example of greenblushing—or transparently sharing your challenges and positioning yourself as a good faith participant in our collective journey to sustainability.

To be clear, not every company is going to actively broadcast its mistakes. And legal departments will have a lot to say about anything that could open them up to lawsuits. But every company can and should lean into a more truthful form of communication when it comes to sustainability. In our experience, that means: I’ve come to think of this video as an example of greenblushing—or transparently sharing your challenges and positioning yourself as a good faith participant in our collective journey to sustainability.

To be clear, not every company is going to actively broadcast its mistakes. And legal departments will have a lot to say about anything that could open them up to lawsuits. But every company can and should lean into a more truthful form of communication when it comes to sustainability. In our experience, that means: 

• Training for truth: Making sure that all teams—from marketing to legal to sales—understand the importance of honest communications and are aware of specific guardrails they need to avoid. 
• Leaning into authenticity: Crafting a sustainability narrative that avoids hyperbole and leans into brand values and voice. And one that communicates accurately the unique role that your company intends to play in the transition to sustainability.
• Being open to growth and learning: Sustainability is a rapidly evolving field, and the crises that we seek to address are rapidly evolving, too. While goals and targets and strategies are important, it’s also essential for companies to leave room for learning and growth—including updating your focus as new issues or opportunities come to light. 
• Unpacking your work in deeply human terms: If authenticity is the goal, then accessible language should be paramount. While it’s easy for ESG communications to get lost in jargon, we see value in unpacking concepts with language that can be understood by a lay audience. That’s why we often work with our clients not just on their compliance-focused ESG reports, but on an accompanying plan to carry that reporting out into the world. 

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Here’s my hypothesis: While consumers might be concerned about environmental and social topics, they are not necessarily demanding perfection. Whether it’s riding a bike on car-centric streets, avoiding flying when trains are unreliable, or eating vegan when the world caters to carnivores, we know that living a perfect green lifestyle is hard in a system that encourages the opposite. 

Read more: CSRD Readiness—Why U.S. companies should act now

The same is true of business. In fact, turning around the global, fossil fueled juggernaut of commerce is going to take decades of concerted work by everybody—and no single individual, company, or institution can instantaneously shift into the perfect green future.

Imperfection is inevitable. And it is deeply human. Not only do consumers and stakeholders understand this. But they relate to it. This creates common ground. And common ground is where communications can really come alive. Whether it’s providing sustainability-focused sales trainings or employee engagements, unpacking detailed ESG reports into consumer-facing communications plans, or helping marketing departments establish a clear set of anti-greenwashing guardrails, our goal at thinkPARALLAX is to make sure that our customers are empowered to not just report on their progress—but to speak loudly, proudly, and accurately about that progress too.

As we argued back in the day, greenhushing doesn’t help anyone. Besides which, there are far too many interesting and important stories out there for any of us to stay silent. 

Need help evolving your sustainability communications? We’re here to help. Reach out to book a meeting with one of our sustainability experts anytime. 

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