To get some insight on how to hold our tongues better, Vincent Heeringa from This Climate Business talks to Rebecca Styles, who leads the investigations team at Consumer NZ and Fiona Stephenson, who leads the communications and marketing team at the Sustainable Business Network – both of whom are speaking at the Communicating Sustainability Masterclass in March 2025.
This Climate Business podast: Greenwashing v greenhushing - Rebecca Styles and Fiona Stephenson (edited excerpts)
Listen to the full episode here.
Vincent
"Fiona, this will be the second masterclass. What do people want to know about communicating sustainability?"
Fiona
“Well, I think it's a growing area and there hasn't been a lot of training on it. In fact, when we looked into this, there was no other training course available. I think it's a growing piece of the puzzle for sustainability, for organisations that want to do well. It's communicating effectively, because if you don't do it well, you're not going to get the results you want. People won't resonate with your messaging and buy your product, or maybe investors won't be so interested. But also, if you do it badly, things can go seriously wrong, and you can end up in the news for all the wrong reasons. There's been a growing rise in greenwashing. If you get that wrong, you might be faced with a massive fine, but also it can do a lot of damage to your brand, and trust is so important you can lose it in an instant.
“What we're trying to do with this Communicating Sustainably Masterclass is make a really practical day of hands-on learning led by a whole bunch of experts across all sorts of different size organisations and sectors, who can share what they know to help people, whether they're sustainability professionals or they're communication or marketing people. It’s trying to bring together those two different strands, which I think is increasingly important.”
Vincent
“I feel with the change of government, particularly in the US, but here as well, that there is a different message required for different times. Do you agree with that?”
Fiona
“It's been a time of massive change in the mood. And as you say, with the recent US election, that's bringing a lot of uncertainty. “We're seeing things in New Zealand like pulling back on some of the previous government's commitments in terms of sustainability and much more of a focus on economic growth. At the same time, cost of living is uppermost for a lot of people. Times are tough for individuals, for businesses.
“It's been tough and the economy is taking longer to bounce back than people hoped initially. So that economic imperative is really uppermost. And I think the changing mood with sustainability not being as high on the agenda with the current government has changed things.”
Vincent
"My sense is that the emphasis is much more commercial. That's around return on investment. Are you picking up on that, Rebecca?"
Rebecca
“There's certainly the emphasis now on growth. And, perhaps growth and doing things that are good for the environment don't go hand in hand and perhaps you're at different ends of a scale. I think because the economic stuff is front of mind people are choosing stuff on cost, and the green claims and any environmental benefit have just slipped down. I think that's just a necessity for a lot of people. But yes, that wider structure is focused on growth and not so much on the green claims. That's sending a message to consumers. It's sending a message to businesses of what will and won't be tolerated or accepted. So it certainly pushes green claims to the background. That's for sure.”
Vincent
“The other thing that I'm noticing is there is a relentless stream of bad news regarding the environment. Politically also, the news just seems to be so grim, people are turning off the news. It requires a different approach to the conversation, doesn't it?”
Fiona
“If you focus too much on the negative, I think it can lead to a sense of paralysis and eco-anxiety. ‘It's all too bad. We can't do anything, let's give up.’ But similarly, if it's too rosy, that just won't gel, because it doesn't sound authentic. So getting the balance right between painting a picture of reality, but with a sense of hope that we can do something, I think is so important.”
Vincent
“Are green products now so mainstream that we don't have to market their sustainable credentials anymore?”
Fiona
“I think we do need to market them because we've been talking a lot about greenwashing. There's been another phenomenon called greenhushing. That's basically when companies don't talk about the good sustainability initiatives they've got because they're afraid of being criticised for not getting it right. They’re doing really good stuff but no one knows about it. That's not good either, because the companies that are leading the way inspire others to follow and it takes the pressure off the laggards who aren't doing anything. There is a growing segment of the market that actively chooses these products.”
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Photo: Rebecca Styles, left, and Fiona Stephenson