TLDR: Greenhushing and greenwashing are the same failure: claims that outrun the evidence. The cure is communication built on substantiation, where every statement carries its proof.
Greenhushing now spans most sectors
Faced with tougher rules and louder critics, many sustainability teams chose silence. South Pole, surveying more than 1,400 companies with dedicated sustainability leads, found greenhushing present across nine of the 14 sectors studied; among the companies that find climate communication harder than before, 58 per cent plan to cut their external communications further. The motive is defensive: changing regulation and fear of investor scrutiny lead the list. The phenomenon has a name, greenhushing, and it now reaches most of the economy.
Staying quiet costs more than it saves
A quiet company protects itself from one risk and inherits another. Customers, talent, and lenders read sustainability as a signal, and an empty page reads as retreat. Accountability also weakens: a target held back from view is a target few will track. Greenhushing trades the risk of a challenged claim for the slow cost of a fading reputation and a record outsiders can follow.
The rules reward proof
Regulators moved in the same direction. The European Commission moved to withdraw the Green Claims Directive in 2025, easing one reporting burden, while the EU’s broader consumer rules restrict climate-neutrality claims unless they are substantiated with evidence, a ban due to apply from 27 September 2026. Courts already act on the gap: in March 2024 the District Court of Amsterdam ruled 15 of KLM’s 19 environmental claims misleading, finding its “Fly Responsibly” campaign painted an overly rosy picture of sustainable flying. The pattern is consistent: vague superlatives lose, and substantiated specifics win. Proof, measured and shown, is the asset that survives both the regulator and the critic.
| Finding | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhushing present across the sectors studied | 9 of 14 sectors | South Pole |
| Companies planning to cut external climate communication further | 58 per cent | South Pole |
| KLM environmental claims ruled misleading | 15 of 19 | District Court of Amsterdam, 2024 |
Communicate credibly by design
Credible communication has a structure. Every claim names its scope, its baseline, its method, and its verification. A number beats an adjective: “we cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions 18 per cent against a 2020 baseline, assured by a third party” travels further and lasts longer than “we are green.” The same trail that satisfies an auditor satisfies a journalist, the discipline Mezyan sets out in its guide to verifiable carbon data. Companies that publish the evidence behind a claim earn the right to make it.
Where companies start
Sustainability and communications teams can adopt a substantiation gate: every external claim carries scope, baseline, method, and assurance before it ships. Marketing can retire vague labels and lead with specific, sourced numbers, which clear the new consumer rules and read as confidence. Boards can treat communication risk as governance, reviewing the evidence behind the claims that carry the brand.
Mezyan helps sustainability and communications teams put a substantiation gate behind every public claim.
FAQ
What is greenhushing?
The practice of deliberately under-communicating sustainability goals and progress, often to avoid scrutiny or regulatory risk.
Is it safer to stay quiet about ESG?
Silence trades one risk for another. It lowers the chance of a challenged claim and raises the cost to reputation, talent, and accountability. Substantiated communication manages both.
How do companies avoid greenwashing claims?
By substantiating every environmental claim with scope, baseline, method, and independent verification, and by replacing vague labels with specific numbers.
References
- South Pole. Survey finds most companies going quiet on green goals. https://www.southpole.com/news/survey-finds-most-companies-going-quiet-on-green-goals
- Hogan Lovells. On Hold: EU pulls the plug on Green Claims Directive. https://www.hoganlovells.com/en/publications/on-hold-eu-pulls-the-plug-on-green-claims-directive
- Mason Hayes & Curran. Greenwashing: Update on the Green Claims Directive. https://www.mhc.ie/latest/insights/greenwashing-update-on-the-green-claims-directive
- Al Jazeera. Dutch court finds airline KLM guilty of greenwashing. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/20/dutch-court-finds-airline-guilty-of-greenwashing
- Mezyan. Five Questions That Pressure-Test Carbon Data Before a Buyer, Bank, or Auditor Does. https://mezyan.ch/verify-carbon-data-five-questions/
