Forum For The Future “Leads The UK Environmental NGO Market”

That’s the headline in a new report from independent research firm Verdantix.

The study is designed to help businesses identify the NGOs best able to support their climate change, sustainability and environmental goals and included 30 interviews with FTSE 100 CSR Directors.

It compared 12 NGOs – including Green Alliance, Business in the Community, The Climate Group, Tomorrow’s Company and The Earthwatch Institute - on 35 different criteria and concluded that the Forum and WWF lead the field.

We’re really pleased with this analysis, as it provides external confirmation that we’re getting some things right in our endeavours to promote sustainable development.

The study found that there were three factors that distinguished both the Forum and WWF from the other NGOs:

Breadth of climate change sustainability expertise – in other words helping organisations address climate change within a broad sustainability agenda.

Recognised impact on business decisions – Forum was singled out for our ability to ‘apply business logic to drive decisions on environmental objectives aligned with commercial goals’.

Effective partnership models – explicit recognition of the value of long-term partnerships with business designed to ‘maximise mutual benefits’.

The Verdantix report, Green Quadrant: Environmental NGOs UK, launched last week, helps sustainability decision-makers compare and shortlist potential suppliers. As well as interviewing FTSE 100 CSR Directors, the three-month study also involved each of the 12 NGOs getting to grips with a detailed questionnaire.

We were also commended on the high quality of our strategic input and guidance, and singled out for praise in the way we often try and shape the debate by brokering industry collaboration. Our new Tourism 2023 vision is just the latest example of this sort of project. We’ve succeeded in bringing the significant players in the UK travel and tourism sector together to agree a blueprint for more sustainable tourism.

However, there’s no room for complacency. The report goes on to say that very few FTSE 100 CSR Directors, speaking on an anonymous basis, consider NGO engagements achieve deeper CEO engagement on environmental issues. The consensus is that the primary business benefit from working with NGOs is their ability to validate and challenge sustainability strategies.

For us at the Forum, changing hearts and minds at board level is one of our key change strategies. By and large, we can point to some very engaged (and honest) relationships with a number of the UK’s leading CEOs, but clearly there is more to do.

So, all in all, this is a pleasing dose of third party endorsement, but not a signal to sit back. The need to address sustainability issues is still urgent and the need to accelerate progress towards more sustainable business models is ever more pressing.

This report suggests that we’re having some impact, albeit, not yet, at the scale needed if we are to stand a chance of delivering a more sustainable future.