For groups of leaders who come together to explore how their sector, place or profession can become more sustainable and take shared action to make it happen

Many global challenges are too big for one organisation alone to tackle. That makes leadership for sustainability as critical for sectors as it is for individual organisations. Working with people with a shared purpose to change a sector, a city or a local community is a brilliant way to develop knowledge and skills and become a leader for sustainability.

We apply our ‘learning journey’ to wider groups with big ambitions in a similar way to how we work with organisations. In the 3-D leadership for sectors, places and professions programme we listen to each individual’s concerns and ideas, we explore with them the knowledge they need, and their individual responses. We then bring the relevant stakeholders together and explore the sort of future they might see for their industry. This collaborative process generates shared ownership of future challenges. From this we then develop and apply strategic responses. 

National College of School Leadership -
leading sustainable schools

Forum for the Future has been working for over four years with the professional body - the National College for School Leadership. Currently we are working with more than 50 school leaders who are using local communities of practice to transform the way their schools and their partner schools are run. These organisations are helping to create a sustainable future through their curriculum, campus and community. 

Our programme of work started with knowledge building and now focuses on practice and reflection – bringing together different schools to share insights and constantly improve performance.

This approach is also structured to impact on the wider educational sector by gathering together and sharing the lessons that each school has learned. These barriers, ways forward and key approaches are being used to influence all leadership programmes and regional support networks as well as policy making in national government. In 2009 a key think piece Leadership for Every Child’s Future will be published on this work.

Transforming concrete and cement: the concrete masterclass

Working with the Concrete Centre, Forum for the Future brought together CEOs from all the key concrete industry players and associations in the UK. Momentum has built up over the last five years, with Forum facilitating a full master class in 2007 and 2008, bringing together competitors to talk about and reach agreement on the pressing, shared agenda of sustainable development. We reached a key milestone in March 2009, when the combined concrete industry published its first Sustainability Report and Strategy including bold commitments for action.