Corporate America got woke. Now it's having second thoughts.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

Unilever spent years crafting its image as a corporate goody-two-shoes. The owner of Dove, Vaseline, Hellmann's, and a bunch of other brands axed quarterly reporting and earnings guidance in the name of focusing on sustainable long-term growth. Under Paul Polman, its CEO from 2009 to 2019, it said it would take into consideration all its stakeholders, not just shareholders, and set out to halve its environmental footprint — including greenhouse-gas emissions...