Calls for companies to speak more openly about their sustainability efforts — a trend dubbed “greenshouting” — may be lost in translation in Asia, where corporate cultures often prioritise image management over transparency, according to sustainability experts.
Kishore Ravuri, Asia director at Impacto Ethics Advisory, said business norms shaped by face-saving, deference to authority and social conformity can reinforce both greenhushing and selective disclosure, limiting the impact of more vocal sustainability communication.
“Asian cultural norms enable systemic silence,” he said in an interview with Eco-Business. “From early on, people are conditioned to mask weaknesses and perform success — and that carries into corporate leadership.”
The concept of greenshouting emerged recently from sustainability certification scheme B Lab and Amsterdam-based advertising group Creatives for Climate as a counter to greenhushing — where firms deliberately downplay climate or sustainability initiatives to avoid scrutiny.
But Ravuri, who is based in Kuala Lumpur, warned that in many Asian markets, greenshouting could risk amplifying misleading or unsubstantiated claims rather than improve transparency.
“The culture in Asia can turn ESG into an image management exercise rather than a balanced reflection of reality,” he said. “The issue is not a lack of policies, but how policies are used to control the narrative.”
While jurisdictions across the region have tightened corporate climate reporting requirements, this has not always translated into more meaningful disclosure, Ravuri said.
In Malaysia, mandatory climate disclosures under the National Sustainability Reporting Framework have raised expectations on reporting, but companies often respond by sanitising information rather than improving its depth.
“When you look at sustainability reports [in Malaysia], the qualitative information to substantiate claims is still missing — even for large companies,” he said. “Companies may not be called out for non-compliance, but that does not mean disclosures are robust.”
He added that sensitive issues, such as conflicts of interest, are rarely disclosed in practice despite being required.
A similar pattern can be seen in India, where anti-greenwashing guidelines are in place but gaps remain in verification and enforcement.
“Boards may comply on paper while continuing to manage how they appear to peers,” Ravuri said. “They are more aggressive on reputation than on accountability or stakeholder outcomes.”
‘Theatrical’ sustainability
This dynamic has created a gap between corporate commitments and actual performance, with many disclosures becoming what Ravuri described as “theatrical”.
Companies often frame selective disclosure as prudence. “When I speak to CEOs, they say they are not hiding issues — just being careful,” he said.
Governance structures may reinforce this tendency. In many Asian firms, sustainability functions sit within corporate affairs or public relations teams, which are focused on shaping narratives rather than interrogating risks.
“They are trained to spin sustainability performance into a PR-able story,” Ravuri said.
Companies also commonly outsource report writing to external consultants or freelance writers, often benchmarking against peers rather than assessing their own material risks.
“I’ve had CEOs say, ‘Just replicate what another company has done,’ without understanding their own risks,” he said.
Instead of encouraging companies to speak more, Ravuri argued that the priority should be making sustainability claims measurable and verifiable.
Improving transparency will require changes in leadership behaviour, governance structures and corporate incentives — not just stricter reporting rules, he added.
Greenhushing and the AI effect
The persistence of greenhushing is also linked to shifting corporate priorities, said Andy Wilson, former sustainability head for advertising agency Ogilvy Asia.
“Part of it is fear [of greenwashing backlash],” said Wilson, who now leads strategy consultancy Early Majority. “But it’s also that other agendas have taken over. AI took off as the latest trend — and sustainability got moved on.”
Only 21 per cent of business leaders are willing to communicate environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, while 80 per cent of brands are expected to become more cautious over the next year, according to a 31-country study by Ipsos.
Some brands in Asia have already scaled back sustainability messaging. Food delivery platform Foodpanda no longer promotes features such as its default cutlery opt-out or green restaurant certification programme, while Singapore-based SaladStop has removed carbon labelling and sustainability messaging from its communications, despite continuing its internal ESG efforts.
Wilson said many companies are now focusing on integrating sustainability into operations without necessarily promoting it.
“A lot of companies are just doing the work,” he said. “It’s not very sexy, but it’s being done.”
Firms are rethinking how sustainability is positioned in the market; rather than leading with environmental credentials, brands are embedding sustainability into broader value propositions such as performance, affordability or quality.
“The real selling point needs to be how a product benefits the mainstream consumer first,” Wilson said. “Sustainability becomes a ‘by the way’, not the lead proposition.”
This is particularly true in Asia, where most consumers prioritise price and performance over environmental attributes, he added.
The shift is visible across sectors where companies increasingly foreground functionality and cost advantages while positioning sustainability as a secondary benefit.
For example, electric two-wheelers are typically marketed in Asian cities on convenience, cost savings and ride quality, with emissions reductions rarely included in promotions.
Wilson said he welcomed efforts to encourage more transparent sustainability communication, but cautioned that the concept of greenshouting may not resonate everywhere.
“No one doubts greenshouting is appropriate for ‘backstage’ audiences like investors or regulators,” he said. “The question is whether it always works frontstage, for consumers.”
