The inverse of greenwashing, by which a company keeps silent about its sustainability commitments to avoid litigation and criticism.
Greenhushing designates the deliberate withholding or understatement, by a company, of its sustainability commitments and performance, for fear of being attacked for greenwashing or of being caught in the political quarrel over ESG. It is the pendulum effect of climate litigation, the company finding itself in a vice between the reproach of doing too much, which exposes it to greenwashing, and that of doing too little, which disappoints investors and regulators demanding transparency. This double bind reveals the weakness of an ESG founded on communication rather than on the measurement of risk. It illustrates why the insurer has an interest in anchoring its approach in financial materiality, which describes a fact, rather than in a declarative posture, suspended on a shifting consensus.
For fear of a lawsuit, a company stops publishing its climate targets, tipping from greenwashing into greenhushing at the risk of disappointing its investors.
silence vert