Green Hushing

So here we are. 2025. We were supposed to be knee-deep in a golden age of sustainable innovation, sipping algae lattes while riding solar-powered scooters into our circular economy utopia. Instead? We’re in a weird place where nobody wants to talk about sustainability. At least, not out loud. Not without triple-checking every sentence with legal. Not unless it’s wrapped in three layers of vague language and two disclaimers. What happened?

Let’s talk about green hushing. The silent sibling of greenwashing. You’ve probably seen it already, maybe without realizing. Companies doing cool, eco-friendly stuff… but barely mentioning it. No press release. No social post. Just a quiet update on page 57 of the annual report, sandwiched between inventory turnover and depreciation schedules. Why? Because they’re terrified of being called out.

And honestly? I get it.

Greenwashing broke the internet, and our trust

For a while, greenwashing was the favorite marketing trick in the corporate playbook. Paint it green, slap on some leaf graphics, say “carbon neutral” a few times, and boom, instant virtue points. Never mind that the “carbon neutral” bit often meant offsetting emissions by funding vague tree-planting projects with no follow-up. Never mind that the product in question was still wrapped in five layers of single-use plastic. As long as the vibe felt sustainable, it passed.

But the internet got smart. Activists, researchers, and, let’s be real, bored Redditors started digging deeper. Brands got roasted. Remember when that one fast fashion brand launched an “eco collection” made of recycled plastic bottles, only for someone to reveal the clothes weren’t actually recyclable and broke down faster than a budget phone after a software update? Yeah. That kind of stuff.

The public backlash was swift and merciless. And it should’ve been. Because you can’t build trust on spin. Especially not when the climate crisis is, you know, actually real. So greenwashing became a scarlet letter. And companies took note.

But instead of learning to do sustainability right, many just… stopped talking about it altogether.

Green hushing: When silence feels safer than speaking up

That’s green hushing. When organizations do good environmental work, but keep it under wraps. Why? Because the risk of being called out feels higher than the reward of recognition.

It’s like that one friend who gets super fit but never posts gym selfies because they know someone will accuse them of showing off or using filters or secretly eating chips. It’s easier to just stay quiet.

Except in this case, it’s not about abs. It’s about ESG strategy, Scope 3 emissions, and supply chain transparency.

Companies are afraid. Afraid that if they announce progress, someone will come along with receipts showing they missed a detail. Or that they still have one supplier in Southeast Asia who uses non-renewable energy. Or that their CEO once took a private jet. Or that the data is based on projections and not a peer-reviewed lifecycle analysis updated weekly.

It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that they don’t want to get dragged. Or worse, cancelled.

The cultural shift from “we’re trying” to “you better be perfect”

We live in an era of performative perfection. One wrong move, or just an incomplete one, and the mob comes for you. Especially online. Especially if you’re a company with a logo and a budget.

There’s a tension here. Because on one hand, accountability matters. We should absolutely hold companies to their claims. But on the other hand, demanding perfection out of the gate just silences those who are trying. And trying is messy. It’s iterative. It means experimenting. Sometimes failing. Always learning.

But if every step forward is scrutinized like a Marvel trailer for continuity errors, most brands will just stop walking.

You can see this in how sustainability comms have changed. Ten years ago, sustainability was on the homepage. Big banners. Bold claims. Now? It’s tucked into a subfolder called “Our Impact,” two clicks deep, behind some corporate stock photos and jargon that sounds like a robot wrote it in 2012. Nobody wants to take risks. Nobody wants to say too much.

The tech analogy: Like updating your phone and hiding the new features

Imagine updating your phone to the latest iOS. You’ve got new widgets, better privacy controls, battery life improvements, and you don’t tell anyone. Because you’re worried someone might notice that one app crashes occasionally or that the camera still struggles in low light. That’s green hushing. You’ve made progress, but you’re too scared to say it out loud.

And here’s the kicker: that silence slows down everyone else.

Because when companies don’t share what’s working, or even what’s not, nobody else can learn from it. The whole field becomes an echo chamber of vague ambition. We get “net-zero by 2050” on repeat, but no actual stories about how to, say, reduce emissions from overseas shipping or scale regenerative agriculture.

We need better incentives, and better conversations

So what now?

First, we need to normalize progress that’s incomplete. We need to make room for the messy middle. For companies to say, “Hey, we’ve reduced packaging waste by 40%, but we’re still figuring out the last mile logistics. Here’s what we’re trying.”

Second, regulators can help by requiring transparency. Not just feel-good storytelling, but actual data. And yes, there are movements in this direction, especially in the EU, where CSRD is pushing companies to disclose sustainability info with the same rigor as financial reporting. That helps. Because it levels the playing field and reduces the fear that saying something means risking everything.

Third, the culture needs a vibe check. If we want real change, we can’t keep punishing people for showing up before they’ve reached 100%. That’s like booing someone at mile 10 of a marathon because they haven’t crossed the finish line yet.

Pop culture taught us this already

Remember the show The Good Place? That brilliant comedy where being “good” turned out to be way more complicated than anyone thought? In one episode, the characters find out that nobody has gotten into the good place in centuries, not because people were evil, but because the world got so complex that every action had unintended consequences.

Buying organic lettuce? Great. Unless it was flown in from across the planet, picked by underpaid laborers, and wrapped in plastic. Driving an electric car? Awesome, unless the battery was mined using questionable practices. You get the idea.

That’s sustainability today. Every choice has trade-offs. Every win has shadows. And if we expect companies to have clean hands before they speak, they’ll just keep those hands in their pockets.

Green hushing is bad for business, and the planet

Here’s the real tragedy of green hushing: it creates a vacuum. And nature (and capitalism) hates vacuums.

When companies don’t talk about their sustainability work, the only stories that get told are the scandals. The exposés. The takedowns. That skews the narrative. It makes it seem like nobody is doing anything right. And that feeds consumer cynicism.

Worse, it discourages other companies from trying. Because if the reward for making progress is public shaming, who wants to go first?

But if we can flip the script, if we can reward transparency over perfection, effort over spin, then maybe we can build a culture where sharing sustainability efforts feels smart, not scary.

So what can we do?

Well, we can start by listening differently. When a brand says, “We’re reducing emissions,” don’t just roll your eyes. Ask how. Ask what they’ve learned. Celebrate the steps and keep the pressure on. Hold them accountable, sure, but make room for progress.

We can also push for real standards. Like actual definitions of “green” that are science-based, not vibe-based. Because if “carbon neutral” means a thousand things, it means nothing.

And maybe, just maybe, we can let companies admit when they don’t have it all figured out.

Because pretending to be perfect? That’s old news. Trying to get better? That’s the story we need now.

In conclusion (but not really)

Green hushing didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the logical end of a culture obsessed with branding over substance, and criticism over collaboration. But it doesn’t have to be the final act.

The next chapter? That’s up to all of us. The brands. The consumers. The regulators. The people on LinkedIn who write way-too-long posts about sustainability and hope someone reads past the first paragraph. (Yes, I see you.)

Let’s make it okay to try. Let’s reward transparency. And let’s bring sustainability back into the conversation, not as a mic drop, but as a work in progress.

Because silence may feel safe, but it’s not how we get better.