An Investigation of How and Why Organizations Enact Greenhushing

In this episode, we speak with Nayla Khan (University of Portsmouth), Marta Nieto-García (Universidad de Salamanca), and Diletta Acuti (University of Bath) to discuss their article, "An Investigation of How and Why Organizations Enact Greenhushing," coauthored with Giampaolo Viglia (University of Portsmouth), published in the March 2026 issue of JAR.The authors explain what greenhushing is: the strategic decision to downplay or stay quiet about genuine sustainability practices, essentially the mirror image of greenwashing. Using Booking.com's sustainability program as a third-party benchmark, they analyzed the websites and social media of 300 UK hotels and found greenhushing to be widespread: only 38% of hotels communicated their verified sustainability practices on their websites, and less than 2% of their Facebook and Instagram posts touched on sustainability at all. Interviews with 16 service marketers across hotels, restaurants, salons, and tour operators revealed two main drivers: fear of greenwashing accusations and a lack of confidence in whether their practices are "enough" to talk about. Tellingly, most greenhushing organizations also don't track their sustainability performance, which the authors argue feeds that lack of confidence.The practical takeaway is that firms with verified practices are leaving value on the table. The authors recommend tracking sustainability performance with verifiable metrics, communicating claims backed by that data, and keeping the story consistent across websites and social platforms so it reads as authentic. Our conversation also digs into the origins of the project, including a candid admission from a major grocery retailer that it deliberately stays silent on sustainability, the challenge of interviewing managers who had never heard the term greenhushing, and future directions for research on this topic.Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1080/00218499.2025.2514889To keep up to date on the latest JAR news sign up for our newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/mtD04QNAnd follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/82528291/admin/