South Pole’s latest annual Net Zero Report, released last week, found that the majority of surveyed companies in 9 of the 14 major sectors are intentionally decreasing their climate communications, otherwise known as ‘greenhushing’, first evidenced in our 2022 Net Zero and Beyond report. The 2024 report is built on new independent research collected by UK research firm Sapio which surveyed over 1,400 companies (out of which 100 in the Netherlands) with >1,000 employees and dedicated sustainability leads, across 12 countries and 14 sectors. It takes a detailed look at companies choosing to not publicise their climate strategies or goals and deliberately decrease or cease external communications around them.
For the first time ever, the report reveals just how widespread greenhushing is. Industries such as fashion, FMCG, technology, oil and gas and even environmental companies across the world are finding communicating their climate goals more difficult and are actively decreasing their external communications of their net zero plans.
Globally, the consumer goods sector, including food and beverage and household goods, was one of the top offenders, with the vast majority (86%) of those firms finding communicating their goals more difficult and now admitting to greenhushing – even higher than those in the oil and gas sector (72%).
Netherlands-based companies stand out as the only sample to believe in communicating net zero and evolving standards
Perhaps the most interesting of the report finding is that the Netherlands was the only country surveyed where the majority (52%) of companies believed that claims like carbon neutral and climate neutral were fit for purpose but needed to evolve with regulation. This is compared to 67% of companies who simply answered that these claims were fit for purpose and didn’t indicate the need for evolution. This is a clear indicator of an advanced understanding of the corporate climate claims landscape highlighting a mature stance when it comes to evolving net zero standards and practices.
Furthermore, the report also further reveals the reasons why companies are greenhushing. In the Netherlands, it shows that 74% of companies find demanding regulation for reporting on climate goals as a top reason for deliberately decreasing communications. This was followed by lack of guidance for industry best practice (47%). This is despite 91% of companies in the region saying they believe communicating net zero goals is good for their company’s bottom line.
Dutch companies have become more careful to communicate as some have been called out openly by amongst others The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) for greenwashing. The high-profile greenwashing litigation has been reinforced with the EU policy to provide very strong guidance on the back of which companies urgently need to reassess their climate claims to no longer use terms such as “environmentally friendly”, “natural”, “biodegradable”, “climate neutral” or “eco” without evidence.
Another reason for not communicating on climate targets is that it is just very hard to meet these targets in the shorter term. Many Dutch companies have set net zero targets, and/or SBTs targets at a very early stage on their climate journey and as a result – with short term target setting these targets are now close to their expiry date. Meanwhile, the standards have tightened and the initial broad understanding of net zero has converged, also on the usage of Carbon Credits for residual and un-abatable emissions and to serve Beyond Value Chain Mitigation. At the moment many Dutch companies find it hard to deliver on these targets, they are no longer actively communicating on them, and they are considering setting new target dates well into the future, or to not even to set (Science Based) Targets going forward.
We need those leading the way to walk the walk and also talk the talk
The report’s findings that there is a continuing and deepening contradiction between taking corporate climate action but choosing not to communicate around it is worrying! And that’s just what we are observing with the 1,400 climate conscious companies. Out of the 77,000 on the original database, it is only a mere 8% that have set a net zero emissions target. It is getting progressively harder to claim net zero but greenhushing is a dangerous trend that risks stymieing corporate climate action.
We are convinced that it is the committed climate conscious companies that will lead the way on which the climate laggards will eventually be pushed to run as regulation gets tightened. Through our work, we experience that these leaders want to overcome the current phase of ‘greenhushing’ and intend a restart to communicate their actions and lessons learned in a credible and nuanced way. These efforts may not be perfect, but they will increase transparency, help drive progress, improve standards, and push the collective corporate momentum on climate action.
The full 2024 report “Destination Zero” can be downloaded under this link
René Groot Bruinderink, Head of Climate Solutions UK and NL South Pole