Trump’s Return Prompts Companies to Stifle Climate Talk With ‘Greenhushing’

(Bloomberg) -- As the chief executive officer of Caelux, Scott Graybeal runs a technology startup in Baldwin Park, California, that makes high-efficiency glass for solar panels. For years, climate change had been a crucial part of Graybeal’s business conversations — until Donald Trump was re-elected last November.

“We have very quickly shifted gears to the other type of conversations,” Graybeal says. By that, he means to downplay his company’s role in producing carbon-free electricity and instead, highlight its contributions outside sustainability, such as domestic job creation, onshore manufacturing and energy independence — all of which resonate with the new administration’s priorities.

“It is not being manipulative; it is the actual truth,” says Graybeal of his new talking points. “With any messaging, you have to tailor your message to the audience and to gain the most receptivity you can.”

In the first month of his second term, President Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, froze funding for green projects, fired staff from agencies that do climate work and targeted agencies’ climate-related programs and language. Against that backdrop, Graybeal and other US executives are dropping the mention of “climate change” in meetings, even as they continue developing or deploying climate-friendly solutions. 

Meanwhile, companies in Europe are also trying to keep their climate actions away from public sight, in an attempt to avoid accusations that they’re overstating their environmental claims. All of this has accelerated a phenomenon known as “greenhushing”: the inverse of greenwashing, when companies exaggerate their green bona fides.

In 2024, 63 out of the 100 largest publicly listed firms in Britain were under-promoting their work in environmental protection, according to an analysis by the Manchester, UK-based research firm Connected Impact, which examined the differences between what companies disclosed in public filings and what they presented in promotional materials. When it came to US companies, the researchers found the desire for staying unnoticed was even greater — as many as 67 major public and private firms resorted to greenhushing. 

“People were under-communicating and under-promoting what they were doing,” said Lucy Walton, chief executive officer of Connected Impact. “We will perhaps see a widening of that gap in the coming year.” 

Jennifer Holmgren, chief executive officer of LanzaTech Global Inc., is also recalibrating her message under shifting political winds. Illinois-based LanzaTech specializes in capturing carbon dioxide from emitters and converting the gas into feedstock for chemical production. While her company’s technology prevents planet-warming CO2 from entering the atmosphere, Holmgren says she will talk more about job creation and economic growth, rather than emissions reduction, over the next four years.

“I think we have to stop talking about, ‘Everything we do is climate change,’ because it’s almost like there’s a visceral reaction to those words,” Holmgren says. “This isn’t a good time to put a red flag in front of the bull.”

This comes as some big corporations have already scaled back their climate commitments, due in large part to concerns over their financial performance and operational challenges. The US leadership change further propels that retreat. In January, the six largest banks in the US cut ties with the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a United Nations-backed initiative that encourages financial institutions to zero out their greenhouse gas emissions. And for companies that haven’t changed course, fewer are willing to publicly display their interest in decarbonization. 

Matthew Blain is a principal of Voyager, a US venture firm that has bankrolled climate tech startups serving heavy-emitting industries. While many of those emitters continue to explore low-carbon technologies to prepare for what Blain describes as “the economy of tomorrow,” he says they have become “increasingly nervous and hesitant to talk about the work they’re doing from a climate perspective.” 

Along with the fear of political blowback, worries about reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny weigh on companies, especially outside the US. In Europe, where tackling climate change is still on governments’ agendas, researchers say companies are pulling away from publicizing their climate efforts due to the risk of being seen as greenwashers. 

Unilever Plc, the British consumer group, has fallen afoul of UK regulators over alleged greenwashing and has faced consumer backlash. Last year the company announced it was watering down some of its environmental promises. Executives were being “cautious and possibly scared by greenwashing investigations,” a Unilever shareholder told Bloomberg News at the time. Meanwhile, regulators across Europe have further stepped up a crackdown on greenwashing — in the UK, it could result in a penalty of up to 10% of a company’s global annual turnover.

“People are so frightened of doing the wrong thing, potentially accidentally greenwashing without intending to,” says Walton. The divergent political climate on opposite sides of the Atlantic also makes promoting green credentials particularly fraught for large global corporations. However, silence risks damaging trust, she says, and could confuse consumers who have watched companies go from making frequent and enthusiastic pledges and disclosures to saying very little.

Some industry observers say greenhushing is a positive tactic if it helps decarbonization continue in difficult circumstances.

Companies are “smart to play whichever cards are most likely to win at any given moment,” says Edward Maibach, a professor specializing in climate change communication at George Mason University. “The most important thing is that their products succeed in the marketplace so that we can bring the fossil fuel era to a rapid close.”

Maibach adds: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

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