Speaking up about Sustainability Achievements Is Still the Best Choice
As global climate mitigation regulations continue to evolve and create uncertainty, companies are feeling increasingly challenged about how to proceed with communicating their sustainability commitments. Though the long-standing trend of greenwashing hasn’t ended, it has more recently given way to a troubled inversion of sustainability undercutting known as greenhushing, where companies are downplaying or even withholding their environmental and climate initiatives to avoid potentially unwanted scrutiny or criticism.
In this article, we explore five key reasons why it’s critically important — and beneficial — for companies to speak up about their sustainability achievements.
Five Key Reasons to Share Your Sustainability Achievements
1. Transparent Claims Build Trust
At the core of effective sustainability communication lies transparency. When companies openly share the specifics of their achievements — such as percentages of recycled content, carbon neutrality scopes, or the standards under which certifications are granted — they build trust and increase transparency with customers, clients, and stakeholders. Detailed and accurate claims backed by evidence-based certifications and verifications reduce the risk of greenwashing and demonstrate a commitment to accountability. Transparency not only protects a brand’s integrity by ensuring claims can be verified and backed up, but the promotion of transparency as a company value also enables more engaging storytelling. While technical sustainability reporting is often mandated as part of regulatory compliance for certain companies, showing the realization of certain sustainability achievements — and the people and communities responsible for them — can help ground the true value of those achievements in the real world.
For example, one of the world’s largest olive oil producers, Pompeian, recently committed to achieving certification across all their farms through SCS Sustainably Grown™, a rigorous and meticulous sustainable agricultural certification that emphasizes holistic, nature-based performance metrics, including protecting biodiversity, improving soil health, and supporting communities. But what does such an achievement really look like? Pompeian leans into their certification journey to tell this story in case studies, videos, and across the company’s social media channels, bringing sustainability to life by focusing on the people who have worked to realize these significant achievements and the robust transparency set in place by certification.
The specificity in storytelling exemplified by Pompeian and backed by SCS Sustainably Grown, as one example, is crucial to avoid greenwashing. Vague sustainability claims can lead to serious reputational damage for companies, not to mention the possibility of failing to gain access to certain economic markets such as the European Union (EU), which has recently mobilized “Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition,” an initiative that scrutinizes companies’ sustainability claims.
Specificity can take many forms, too. For example, to avoid greenwashing with Recycled Content certification, companies must specify which products are certified, include the percentage of recycled content, and identify the recycled materials in a product to make the sustainability claim clear and relevant to consumers. Once the technical details of the Recycled Content certification are there, it provides a substantial foundation for storytelling and humanizing the meaning of these parameters. Detailed claims help add a layer of trustworthiness as brands illustrate how recycled content can bring value to communities in the form of reducing waste to landfills, promoting a circular economy, and reducing virgin material extraction, as just a few examples.
2. Inspiration Sparks Action
No achievement is too small to share. Every sustainability milestone has the power to inspire others — whether it’s consumers, competitors, or collaborators — to take their own actions. Showcasing progress shifts mindsets, encourages symbiotic approaches, and creates a snowball effect where sustainability becomes the norm rather than the exception. By speaking up, companies can motivate industries and communities to unite in the shared mission of protecting our planet and maintaining safe communities in the face of escalating climate concerns and impacts.
3. Mandatory Reporting on the Horizon
The global regulatory landscape, which includes sustainability reporting, is rapidly evolving. What was once voluntary is increasingly becoming mandatory — and this can mean companies may need to develop more nimble operations to support compliance with these newer regulatory requirements. Achieving compliance with new regulatory frameworks also comes with a need to develop effective modes of communicating the content of sustainability reporting to relevant stakeholders, communities, and other interested parties, such as potential financial investors.
Regulatory frameworks such as the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), Climate Disclosure Project (CDP), European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), along with progressive legislation coming from California (Senate Bills 253, 261, and 219) and New York in the United States, require companies to disclose their sustainability practices across a number of risks and opportunities and literally dozens of different metrics. By starting now, companies can get ahead of these mandates, ensuring regulatory compliance while also refining an array of messaging to maintain transparency and accountability with stakeholders. Early adoption of clear and credible communication practices positions companies as leaders in their respective sectors.
Learn more about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) assurance in a changing regulatory landscape.
4. Amplify the Positive Impacts
Sustainability efforts have wide-ranging effects — on consumers, communities, the economy, and the environment. By highlighting the positive impacts your company is making, you can connect emotionally with your audiences and emphasize the tangible benefits of your products and initiatives. For instance, how does a renewable energy project contribute to local job creation? How does a reduction in carbon emissions improve public health? How have your water stewardship initiatives impacted the local watershed? Sharing these stories not only strengthens brand loyalty but also helps cultivate a unified narrative of global progress.
5. Progress Over Perfection
The fear of imperfection often paralyzes action, but it’s important to remember that sustainability is an evolving journey that is not meant to define or guarantee any kind of final “arrival.” A commitment to continuous improvement over the short, medium, and long term can help companies be open about sharing successes and challenges and create a culture of learning and collaboration.
Avoiding greenwashing while remaining undeterred in the face of greenhushing means embracing imperfection and focusing on the broader goal — credible progress toward a sustainable future that aligns with evidence-based approaches and accepted scientific pathways.
Refine Your Company’s Voice with Better Tools
As demands for transparency and authenticity in sustainability grow, companies have an unprecedented opportunity not only to share their achievements but also to connect with consumers through strategic and thoughtful messaging. Using research-based methods to communicate sustainability milestones and achievements can improve how businesses convey their messages. These practices can help establish trust, expand audience reach, and encourage action.
SCS Global Services provides a wide range of client marketing solutions and, for the past four decades, has worked with clients ranging from local businesses to multi-national corporations to relate certification claims to specific, positive outcomes for people and communities around the world.
If your company needs assistance with building brand equity through the promotion of your sustainability certifications, schedule a meeting with an SCS Client Marketing Services Team Member today to look into the different options and messaging that could positively impact your brand.
