Many property lenders have been accused of being guilty of “green hushing” their ESG requirements.

A report by The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, a University College London (UCL) department, called ESG in the Real Estate Finance Industry, has found that some property finance providers are complying with regulations, but beyond that do very little. In the report, UCL researchers have said that these lenders produce stock answers to describe their routine practices, such as “we consider ESG issues in each investment decision”. These, says the report, reveal little of their processes and appear to show that these financers are only “paying lip service to the ESG agenda”.

This, say the authors, is a form of “green hushing”. The term refers to companies who take steps to remain silent about their net-zero strategies, either through avoidance or refusal. “If somebody asks about their climate goals, they decline to answer. If nobody asks, they