Spotlight on…Greenwashing vs greenhushing
In this Climate Action Programme ‘spotlight on’ article, Catherine Frankpitt, founder and director of Strike Communications, reveals the difference between greenwashing and greenhushing, why they matter, and what steps you can take to avoid them.
How much is your business doing to reduce its environmental impact? And secondly, how much are you talking about it? To say or not to say is the question. Overstate your efforts, even with good intentions, and you risk greenwashing… Undersell the good work you’re doing, for fear of being overly scrutinised, and you end up greenhushing. Figuring out how to communicate a company’s sustainability progress accurately can be pretty thorny, so let’s work through it.
First up – take a step back and work out what the aim is with your sustainable action. The long-term global goal of fixing the climate crisis will not be solved by one company’s efforts, but the more SMEs and companies that act sustainably and share knowledge on how to do this, the better. The primary goal should be to actually help the environment, not to just make noise. Whatever you say about your climate action will always sound hollow if it’s not coming from a genuine place.
Then there’s no getting around the fact that businesses do need to be profitable, and it may feel like there isn’t a way to have sustainable policies and targets in place without detracting from sales, recruitment, or day to day business strategy. But if you want your company to stick around, you’ll do well to invest in both making and communicating progress towards reducing your environmental impact. It’s more fashionable than ever to be climate conscious, and sadly the situation is still worsening, so this is a bandwagon you definitely need to hop on – not to mention the increasing numbers of would-be employees who deliberately seek out companies with solid sustainability strategies when looking for new roles.
Greenwashing: to make a product, policy, or practice appear more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is.
Greenhushing: to deliberately not share progress on sustainability initiatives for fear of being accused of greenwashing.
When it comes to greenwashing, there is of course the extreme end of the practice – outright deceit by making baseless claims about environmental strategy – but hopefully it goes without saying that this isn’t okay.
The more regular type of greenwashing is via well-meant overstatements of how far a company has come with its sustainability goals. Keep your stakeholder relationships solid by resisting the temptation to exaggerate the truth – it will do nothing for your brand reputation – and instead be upfront about what you have achieved, no matter how small. Every little helps, and people appreciate honesty about the progress still to come.
Greenhushing may sound like the better of the two, but by not really stating what climate policies or targets your business is putting in place or achieving, you limit the quantity and quality of publicly available information. This is important so corporate climate targets and emissions can be accurately analysed, and to inspire and encourage more businesses to take positive action. The more achievable and understandable your sustainability goals, the easier it will be to not fall into greenhushing – so make sure everyone in your company is clear about your strategy and engaged in taking action. Communicate with your stakeholders; let them know the good work you’re doing as well as the challenges, so they can see you are taking sustainability seriously.
Top tips to avoid greenwashing
- Carefully track your emissions data so you can back up any claims and truly understand your progress.
- Be transparent with your staff and stakeholders about your climate and nature action.
- Be transparent about the challenges and failures too. This journey is difficult, and no one organisation has got it all figured out.
- Avoid using vague statements about being green or eco-friendly and stick to positive but factual messaging.
- Upskill your staff so they feel confident talking to clients and customers about your climate and nature action. Ensure they understand all the terminology, so they don’t accidentally end up making false claims. Staff are also an asset when it comes to questioning any statements being made.
- Join groups and networks such as Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, to share best practice, learn from each other, and help call out and avoid misinformation.
- Understand the regulations and legislation, especially if your business sells products. Learn more via the EU’s proposed Green Claims Directive.
In short: be sure of what climate action you’re doing, so you can be sure of what you’re communicating, and you’ll be golden (or green).
Delve further into how to challenge greenwashing in this Better Business Network report.
Catherine has more than 20 years’ PR and communications experience, working with a range of organisations. She launched Strike Communications in 2020 with a core focus on campaigns, culture and causes. Read their blog about the importance of PR and communicating well in order to manage your organisation’s reputation.
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