{"id":148654,"date":"2024-07-26T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=148654"},"modified":"2024-07-22T12:54:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T10:54:29","slug":"two-thirds-of-uss-100-biggest-businesses-avoid-greenwashing-by-keeping-quiet-on-esg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/two-thirds-of-uss-100-biggest-businesses-avoid-greenwashing-by-keeping-quiet-on-esg\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-thirds of US\u2019s 100 biggest businesses \u201cavoid greenwashing\u201d by keeping quiet on ESG"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"384\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/07\/2024_05_16-12_12_27-WN-CI-0027.jpg\" alt=\"Photo (L to R) \u2013 Garrett Bond (Senior Director of Analytics, Ringer Sciences), Dr Lucy Walton (CEO, Connected Impact) and Taylor Schott (Senior Manager \u2013 Analytics, Ringer Sciences), who conducted the report research.\" class=\"wp-image-148672\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.8;width:283px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/07\/2024_05_16-12_12_27-WN-CI-0027.jpg 384w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/07\/2024_05_16-12_12_27-WN-CI-0027-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/07\/2024_05_16-12_12_27-WN-CI-0027-120x150.jpg 120w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/07\/2024_05_16-12_12_27-WN-CI-0027-216x270.jpg 216w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo (L to R) \u2013 Garrett Bond (Senior Director of Analytics, Ringer Sciences), Dr Lucy Walton (CEO, Connected Impact) and Taylor Schott (Senior Manager \u2013 Analytics, Ringer Sciences), who conducted the report research. \u00a9 Business Wire<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>New research finds almost six in ten (58%) of the top 100 largest public and private US companies are quietly disclosing their ESG progress but not communicating it to the public \u2013 putting them at risk of \u201cgreenhushing\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>With 85% of investors believing the $30 trillion of global ESG assets bring better returns \u2013 businesses that keep quiet are missing out on investment.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>But businesses that are transparent on their ESG progress can drive investment and gain credibility with consumers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New research suggests that almost six in ten (58%) of the top 100 largest public and private US companies are responding to greenwashing concerns by keeping quiet on genuine ESG progress.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>With global ESG assets surpassing $30 trillion in 2022 and 85% of investors reporting that ESG assets lead to better returns<sup>1<\/sup>, companies that remain quiet may be missing out on potential investment opportunities and consumer demand<sup>2<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cts.businesswire.com\/ct\/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporatetransparencyindex.com&amp;esheet=54092008&amp;newsitemid=20240709169203&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Transparency+Index+2024+report&amp;index=1&amp;md5=0f55b162a81ac1f60b98ec37d82e9948\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Transparency Index 2024<\/em>&nbsp;report<\/a>, published by data insights company Connected Impact, and data science consultancy Ringer Sciences, reviewed over 600,000 corporate communications from 200 companies to identify the \u201ctransparency gaps\u201d between what businesses communicate on social media about ESG topics, and what they factually disclose about their targets and performance in annual reports, websites and other corporate documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings reveal only 2% of US companies \u201cover promoted\u201d their ESG progress, with 58% \u201cunder promoting\u201d and disclosing more factual data on ESG than promoted. In a climate of stringent regulatory scrutiny, where mistakes can result in fines and reputational damage, companies may be hesitant to promote their legitimate ESG credentials due to fears of greenwashing accusations. This puts them at risk of \u201cgreenhushing\u201d \u2013 where organizations choose not to publicize details of their climate targets, or their plan to reach their targets, to avoid scrutiny and allegations of greenwashing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Dr. Lucy Walton, CEO of Connected Impact<\/strong>, said: \u201cBusinesses are under increasing pressure to avoid greenwashing \u2013 with increasing regulations and potential fines for those who misrepresent their legitimate ESG efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut businesses must also take action to avoid \u2018greenhushing\u2019. Our data reveals that businesses are more likely to under-promote than over-promote their ESG initiatives. This cautious approach can deter investment and undermine credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Only four in ten (40%) of companies offered a \u201cbalanced\u201d picture, with a minimal transparency gap. The report argues that businesses with a small gap are more trustworthy than their peers. The report examined emissions, ethics, diversity and inclusion topics to represent E, S and G criteria. Emission disclosures had the largest gap, with 67% of companies disclosing more on emissions than they communicated. While governance had the smallest gap, with 40% of companies having a gap between their ethics discloses and communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Dr. Walton added<\/strong>, \u201cESG transparency is currently a missed opportunity for the top 200 businesses in the UK and US. We know most consumers favor responsible brands and transparent businesses. We know a well-governed transparent business attracts more investment and top talent<sup>3<\/sup>. This report equips businesses to identify \u2013 and close \u2013 transparency gaps so we can all make better decisions about where to invest our money, time and attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"144\" height=\"59\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/07\/CONNECTED_IMPACT_LOGO_-FULL-_DRK_GREEN_-05-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148670\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About <strong>Connected Impact\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Connected Impact\u00a0is a data insights company which provides businesses with actionable analysis of ESG disclosures, communications and performance to equip them to better navigate reporting complexities and build stakeholder trust.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"144\" height=\"27\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/07\/RINGER_SCIENCES_LOGO.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148671\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About <strong>Ringer Sciences<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ringer Sciences\u00a0is a data science and analytics consulting firm that works with companies of all sizes and across industries to help them leverage data to make informed business decisions backed by research. Using a combination of real-world, social, and third-party data sources, we arm our clients with actionable insights and prescriptive recommendations for immediate impact and outline future opportunities tailored to their specific business goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>References<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:13px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td colspan=\"4\"><strong>US<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td colspan=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>Balance<\/td><td>Total Transparency Gap&nbsp;<em>Sum of disclosure and<\/em><em>Communication gap<\/em><\/td><td>\u201cOverpromotion\u201d&nbsp;<em>Disclosure gap<\/em><\/td><td>\u201cUnder promotion\u201d&nbsp;<em>Communication gap<\/em><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>E<\/strong><\/td><td>28%<\/td><td>72%<\/td><td>5%<\/td><td>67%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>S<\/strong><\/td><td>33%<\/td><td>67%<\/td><td>1%<\/td><td>66%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>G<\/strong><\/td><td>60%<\/td><td>40%<\/td><td>0%<\/td><td>40%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Average<\/strong><\/td><td>40%<\/td><td>60%<\/td><td>2%<\/td><td>58%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td colspan=\"4\"><strong>UK<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td colspan=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>Balance<\/td><td>Total Transparency Gap&nbsp;<em>Sum of disclosure and<\/em><em>Communication gap<\/em><\/td><td>\u201cOverpromotion\u201d&nbsp;<em>Disclosure gap<\/em><\/td><td>\u201cUnder promotion\u201d&nbsp;<em>Communication gap<\/em><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>E<\/strong><\/td><td>32%<\/td><td>68%<\/td><td>5%<\/td><td>63%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>S<\/strong><\/td><td>28%<\/td><td>72%<\/td><td>1%<\/td><td>71%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>G<\/strong><\/td><td>45%<\/td><td>55%<\/td><td>1%<\/td><td>54%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Average<\/strong><\/td><td>35%<\/td><td>65%<\/td><td>2%<\/td><td>63%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Methodology<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The Transparency Index 2024 report, published by data insights company Connected Impact and data science consultancy Ringer Sciences, reviewed over 600,000 LinkedIn and Twitter posts as a proxy for external communications from the FTSE 100 and the top 100 largest public and private US companies using publicly available revenue data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This report analysed emissions data to represent \u2018Environment\u2019, diversity, equity and inclusion data to represent \u2018Social\u2019, and ethics data to represent \u2018Governance\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the disclosure analysis, analysts reviewed over 90 mandatory and voluntary sustainability related disclosures. The disclosures were assessed by reviewing information available on the selected company&#8217;s corporate and investor relations website pages and embedded documents such as sustainability reports, annual reports and ESG data books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the social media analysis, analysts sampled 22,718 English-language LinkedIn posts and 580,664 English-language X posts from the UK\u2019s FTSE 100 and the top 100 largest public and private US companies with active accounts in 2023. These were organic posts, not LinkedIn promotions or engagements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Connected Impact\u2019s patent-pending methodologies were then used to analyse sampled data. Transparency was calculated by quantifying the balance and alignment between communications and disclosures. A transparency gap is defined as the quantified difference between a company\u2019s factual disclosures on a particular topic and the company\u2019s commentary or communication on the same topic. Transparent communication proportionately aligns the quantity and quality of qualitative content on a topic, with detailed and evidenced quantitative disclosure on the same topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/cts.businesswire.com\/ct\/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fcompany%2Fpress%2Fglobal-esg-assets-predicted-to-hit-40-trillion-by-2030-despite-challenging-environment-forecasts-bloomberg-intelligence%2F&amp;esheet=54092008&amp;newsitemid=20240709169203&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fcompany%2Fpress%2Fglobal-esg-assets-predicted-to-hit-40-trillion-by-2030-despite-challenging-environment-forecasts-bloomberg-intelligence%2F&amp;index=4&amp;md5=75e906eed10e35a3a46053ff3d1eaaa9\" target=\"_blank\"><sub>https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/company\/press\/global-esg-assets-predicted-to-hit-40-trillion-by-2030-despite-challenging-environment-forecasts-bloomberg-intelligence\/<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/cts.businesswire.com\/ct\/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mckinsey.com%2Findustries%2Fconsumer-packaged-goods%2Four-insights%2Fconsumers-care-about-sustainability-and-back-it-up-with-their-wallets&amp;esheet=54092008&amp;newsitemid=20240709169203&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mckinsey.com%2Findustries%2Fconsumer-packaged-goods%2Four-insights%2Fconsumers-care-about-sustainability-and-back-it-up-with-their-wallets&amp;index=5&amp;md5=461ff8cd904853c9be40e0aa531421fd\" target=\"_blank\"><sub>https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/industries\/consumer-packaged-goods\/our-insights\/consumers-care-about-sustainability-and-back-it-up-with-their-wallets<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/cts.businesswire.com\/ct\/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2Fswytch%2Fnew-study-shows-employees-seek-and-stay-loyal-to-greener-companies-f485889f9a7f&amp;esheet=54092008&amp;newsitemid=20240709169203&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2Fswytch%2Fnew-study-shows-employees-seek-and-stay-loyal-to-greener-companies-f485889f9a7f&amp;index=6&amp;md5=16a8a89663598554e1a07f230a1c9e89\" target=\"_blank\"><sub>https:\/\/medium.com\/swytch\/new-study-shows-employees-seek-and-stay-loyal-to-greener-companies-f485889f9a7f<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research suggests that almost six in ten (58%) of the top 100 largest public and private US companies are responding to greenwashing concerns by keeping quiet on genuine ESG progress. With global ESG assets surpassing $30 trillion in 2022 and 85% of investors reporting that ESG assets lead to better returns1, companies that remain [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":148673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"In a climate of stringent regulatory scrutiny, where mistakes can result in fines and reputational damage, companies may be hesitant to promote their legitimate ESG credentials due to fears of accusations","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[21948,14441,5817],"supplier":[24577,24578],"class_list":["post-148654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-greenwashing","tag-policy","tag-research","supplier-connected-impact","supplier-ringer-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148654"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=148654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}