Sounds of silence: Greenhushing now marks the most ambitious climate fighters

The opposite of greenwashing; companies keep their good deeds quiet to avoid the Trump spotlight

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(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — As you search for companies that are doing the most to mitigate climate change, silence sometimes speaks the loudest.

That’s because many companies are choosing to underreport their climate efforts. In contrast to overselling those efforts, also known as greenwashing, this alternate approach is known as “greenhushing.”

The study that documents this phenomenon is titled “Value of Silence: Determinants and Consequences of Greenhushing.” It was conducted by Sonam Singh of the University of South Florida; Ashwin Malshe of the University of Texas at San Antonio; Yakov Bart of Northeastern University; Anatoli Colicev of the University of Liverpool and Serguei Netessine of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers found that up to one-quarter of firms engage in greenhushing, defined as “the strategic downplay or deliberate silence surrounding firms’ environmental efforts, whereby companies undertake substantive environmental improvements but choose not to communicate them.”