In case you missed it: AI + Sustainability Reporting | Climate Week NYC
You can’t spell Climate Week without AI. Otherwise, it would be Clmte Week.
All kidding aside, artificial intelligence figured into just about every panel, conference, keynote and forum in New York last week. During the workshop, “How AI is Disrupting Sustainability Reporting,” I focused on the pitfalls of green hushing.
Companies that have stopped talking about their sustainability and impact work stand out like a sore thumb when a record 99 percent of S&P 500 companies are now issuing sustainability reports.
Even mid-cap companies – those in the bottom half of the Russell 1000 Index – issued 2024 sustainability reports in record numbers, 89.7 percent, according to a September 2025 analysis by the Governance and Accountability Institute.
The bots that spider corporate web sites and reporting frameworks quickly locate and ingest reports and filings as soon as they go live. This process ensures that ESG ratings and rankings agencies, investors and other stakeholders have access to a company’s data from the most recent reporting period.
Beyond that annual data dump, what many companies are providing in terms of updates, stories and context is, in actuality, the sound of silence.
An analysis of online mentions of hundreds of common terms used in sustainability and impact narratives dropped from 438,000 in 2024 to 396,000 in 2025. The declines in earned media across broadcast, print and online was also seen in corporate-issued updates, according to 3BL’s analysis.
This green hushing is happening at the same time AI search is changing the way information is found online. Brands that thought they figured out how to position themselves for Google search are at reputational risk now that AI is eliminating billions of clicks.
Imagine reaching a difficult goal, perhaps the best in your industry, and not having it referenced during an AI search.
Without a steady flow of corporate information to the Large Language Models (LLMs) feeding generative search engines, companies risk posts from Reddit and LinkedIn being cited rather than a brand’s news, articles, videos and reports.
When there is doubt about whether a company remains committed to sustainability, there is an erosion of trust, according to a survey conducted by 3BL, TriplePundit and Glow, “Say less, risk more: Sustainability silence is undermining trust.”
Silence is no longer neutral. It triggers skepticism with consumers.
If there is one thing I have learned in 15 years working with 3BL’s client base of 1,500 brands, visibility amplifies trust for companies that continue to communicate about their sustainability and impact work.
________________________________________________________________________
By Dave Armon, Vice Chairman, 3BL