Following backlash from consumers fed up with their focus on woke initiatives, executives at U.S. companies have cut their mentions of ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) on earnings calls by 31% from the same period last year.

Financial research platform AlphaSense reported that the decline of such mentions between April 1 to June 5 by companies represented the largest such year-over-year decline and the fifth straight quarter of year-over-year plunges, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“The easiest thing to do is just to stay out of the conversation and emphasize other facets of business that are going to be perceived as less controversial and more core to the traditional metrics of the business,” Jason Jay, senior lecturer of sustainability at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the Journal.

Celebration by conservatives over the decline in mentions may be premature. The Journal points out that scant evidence exists that public companies have reduced the ESG and DEI initiatives. Sustainability reports and greenhouse-gas emissions are still being discussed and executive compensation is often tied to ESG metrics.

Still, there is evidence that the backlash is having an effect. At the electronic-signature firm Docusign, sustainability initiatives, carbon-neutral status, and net-zero emissions have not been mentioned on earning calls since March 2022. Chip maker Qualcomm last specifically addressed ESG topics on an earnings call in February 2022.

Meal-kit provider Blu Apron hasn’t discussed ESG since November 2022.

But James McRitchie, an individual investor in close to 200 companies, told the Journal, “I think companies are going to hush it up more, but they’re going to keep on going with the initiatives.”

The National Center for Public Policy Research has almost doubled the number of proposals it issued from last year that target companies, asserting that their fiduciary duty was being jettisoned if they did not take a neutral stand on social and political issues.

In early June, the latest estimates of the staggering losses suffered by Anheuser-Busch since April 1, the day the Dylan Mulvaney controversy exploded, put their loss in market value at about $27 billion by the end of May.

The company had a $134.55 billion value as of March 31 before it plunged to $107.44 billion by the end of May, according to Dow Jones Market Data Group. The company’s stock plummeted 19.98% from its high in March. That 20% drop entered the zone of a bear market. Bud Light sales revenues dropped 25.7% for the week ending May 20 compared to the same week in 2022, Bump Williams Consulting estimated.

By the end of May, the plummet in Target’s share prices reached the longest losing streak the chain had suffered in almost five years.

Target’s share prices fell for eight straight days as the store lost a staggering $12 billion in market value to rest at $61.85 billion in the wake of a consumer boycott triggered by its LGBTQ merchandise.

Author Elizabeth Gilbert will not release her new book after receiving backlash from fans over the book’s setting in Russia, she announced on Monday. 

Gilbert’s newest novel “The Snow Forest” was due for release in February 2024, but Gilbert told fans in a Twitter video Monday afternoon that she had decided to remove the book from its planned publication schedule. 

The author – known for her 2006 memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” – explained that her book is set in the middle of Siberia during the 20th century and is about a group that “made a decision to remove themselves from society, to resist the Soviet government, and to try to defend nature against industrialization.” 

Gilbert said an announcement of her book elicited a negative response from her Ukrainian readers, “expressing anger, sorrow, disappointment, and pain” that she would “choose to release a book into the world right now … set in Russia.” 

The book’s Goodreads page also received an onslaught of negative responses over the weekend, already posting more than 530 one-star ratings and more than 150 comments.

Important announcement about THE SNOW FOREST. Please note that if you were charged for your pre-order, you will be fully refunded. Thank you so much. pic.twitter.com/OAEmrjtfJx

— Elizabeth Gilbert (@GilbertLiz) June 12, 2023

Though the book depicts resistance against the Soviet government, Gilbert noted that the response from readers was directed toward “any book, no matter what the subject is.” 

“I do not want to add any harm to a group of people who have already experienced, and who are continuing to experience, grievous and extreme harm,” she said. “It is not the time for this book to be published.”

Gilbert’s decision sparked some criticism that she was censoring her work due to military conflict. PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech, responded that Gilbert’s decision was “well-intended” but that publication of a novel set in Russia “should not be cast as an act exacerbating oppression.”

Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberg said in a statement to NPR that the organization supports Gilbert’s decision: “Authors should never be required to withdraw books but must have the right to speak or not speak when they wish.”

Gilbert did not confirm whether the book would be published at a later date. 

“I’ve got other book projects that I’m working on,” she said. “I made a decision to turn my attention to working on those now.”