Green-Hushing in the C-Suite

Why Big Brands Are Dialing Down Their Climate Ambitions
- And Why Their Small Suppliers Hold the Key

Photo by Ernie A. Stephens on Unsplash

The Promise, Now Paused

On 12 June Bloomberg chronicled an uncomfortable trend: household-name companies that once raced to out-pledge each other on climate action are quietly rowing back. Coca-Cola, BP and HSBC—each a sector leader—have watered down or postponed centre-piece sustainability goals, replacing bold declarations with vaguer long-term aspirations.
BP offers the starkest reversal. After years of touting a twenty-fold expansion of renewables and a 40 % cut in oil and gas output by 2030, the company told investors in February it would abandon the renewables target and lift fossil-fuel capital spending to about $10 billion a year.

Coca-Cola’s retreat is subtler but significant. The beverage giant has “re-edited” its World Without Waste webpage, removing the promise that one-quarter of its drinks would be sold in reusable packaging by 2030—a goal widely praised when it was announced in 2022.
Meanwhile, HSBC has pushed its deadline for net-zero emissions in its own operations from 2030 all the way to 2050, citing the slow pace of change in the wider economy.

From Bold Declarations to Strategic Silence

What links these roll-backs is not a sudden disbelief in climate science but a surge in risk aversion. A 2024 South Pole survey of 1 400 corporate sustainability leads found that 58 % plan to reduce external communications about their net-zero strategies—a phenomenon the consultancy dubbed green-hushing. Executives told researchers they still intend to act but feel that talking openly now invites lawsuits, activist investors or anti-ESG political backlash.

Hidden Emissions in the Supply Chain

There is also a hard-headed operational reason to dial down rhetoric: most of the emissions the big brands hope to cut lie outside their direct control. The World Economic Forum estimates that up to 70 % of a typical company’s carbon footprint originates in its supply chain (Scope 3)—upstream at mines, farms and factories, or downstream in product use and disposal. Measuring, let alone reducing, those invisible tonnes requires data from thousands of suppliers.

SMEs: The Data Deficit

Yet the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that dominate global supply chains hear little from their corporate customers. A recent survey for the We Mean Business Coalition found that only 17 % of SMEs have ever been asked to reduce—or even disclose—their emissions by a buyer. The policy environment risks widening the gap: Brussels is considering exempting firms with fewer than 1 000 employees from the EU’s flagship Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, a move that would remove formal pressure from tens of thousands of European suppliers.

Without granular Scope 3 data the world’s biggest brands cannot credibly model their transition pathways. That, in turn, makes ambitious interim targets a reputational hazard—fuel for more retreats and more green-hushing.

Turning Silence into Progress

The solution is not less disclosure but smarter engagement. Large corporates can start by weaving basic emissions reporting into purchase orders, offering shared tools and coaching via platforms such as the SME Climate Hub, and rewarding suppliers that move fastest with longer contracts or preferred-bidder status. Policymakers, for their part, should resist the temptation to shrink reporting thresholds; transparency is the cheapest climate lever they have.

Key Takeaways

• Pledges rolled back: BP, Coca-Cola and HSBC have diluted near-term climate goals while keeping distant net-zero dates.
• Rise of green-hushing: 58 % of climate-active firms now plan to say less about their goals to avoid legal and political cross-fire.
• Supply-chain blind spot: Up to 70 % of corporate emissions sit with suppliers, yet only 17 % of SMEs are being asked for data.
• Regulatory risk: Proposed EU rules would exempt smaller suppliers from disclosure, widening the information gap.
• Path forward: Integrate emissions metrics into procurement, invest in supplier enablement, and champion robust, harmonized reporting.

By focusing on the small businesses that make and move their products, large brands can turn today’s strategic silence into tomorrow’s tangible progress.