Supply chains and livelihoods

It shouldn’t cost the earth for supply chains to meet our needs. Yet entrenched in many global supply chains are environmental abuse, poor working conditions, unequal distribution of profits, and inefficient use of resources.

Shifting these complex problems requires us to collaborate, remove barriers to progress, coordinate our efforts and innovate solutions in the face of disruptive change. Only then can we secure sustainable supply, viability and fair livelihoods across global industries.

What are our goals?

Engaging brands, retailers and consumers in buying sustainably sourced products.
Transforming supply chain business models to distribute value more equally.
Addressing barriers to transparency.
Identifying and building opportunities for sustainable jobs and livelihoods, and growing the resilience of farmers, workers and communities.

Talk to Charlene Collison, our Associate Director, Sustainable Value Chains and Livelihoods, or see more of our work below.

We're tracking this challenge live on the Futures Centre, head over to see what #signalsofchange we're spotting.

A Compass for Just and Regenerative Business

In partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Forum sets out a working definition of what it means for a business to be ‘just and regenerative’ and provides practical guidance on how to get there. The report, ‘A Compass for Just and Regenerative Business’, launched in November 2021, and provides a ‘Business Transformation Compass’ to support you in navigating change - and putting theory into practice. Read more

Beauty and Personal Care Sustainability Project

Demand for sustainable products is growing, and calls for safe and sustainable products, with transparent and clear ingredient lists, are increasing. So, how do we get more sustainable products on retailers’ shelves? Read more

Circular Leap Asia

A new Forum report shines a light on the huge untapped potential of fashion manufacturers to contribute to the fashion sector’s circular transformation and highlights the opportunity to recalibrate industry power dynamics as the industry emerges from the COVID-19 crisis. Read more

Consumer Futures 2020

A practical tool based around four future scenarios to help consumer goods organisations plan for the years ahead. Read more

Cotton 2040

Cotton 2040 aims to create a resilient cotton industry in an increasingly climate-disrupted world by bringing together stakeholders across the value chain. Read more

Cotton 2040: aligning sustainability impact metrics

As part of Cotton 2040, we are working with the major sustainable cotton standards, programmes and codes on greater alignment of sustainable cotton impact metrics. Creating more credible, consistent and comparable data will help brands and retailers to more confidently track the impact of their sustainable cotton sourcing decisions. Read more

CottonUP guide

Together with the partners in the Cotton 2040 coalition, we are calling on brands and retailers to radically increase their sourcing of sustainable cotton and have launched a digital guide to support them with fast-tracking their sourcing strategies Read more

Creating sustainable value chains

Resources for organisations working to pilot and scale alternative business models that have the potential to balance nature, people and economy. Read more

Decent Rural Living Initiative

Identifying, supporting and scaling solutions that improve the lives of rural workers in Indonesia. Read more

Eliminating single-use plastics with Asian food delivery companies

Promising convenience, affordability and choice for busy consumers, food delivery services have burgeoned in recent years, particularly in Asia. In 2015, the Asia Pacific region accounted for nearly half the total value of global home food delivery, and it’s expected to be the industry’s fastest growing region in the next 2 years. Read more

Envisioning the future of Man-made Cellulosic Fibres (MMCF)

Man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCF) – including viscose, rayon, modal and lyocell – have the potential to contribute to a more sustainable future. The MMCF 2030 Vision outlines how it could build a more resilient apparel and textile industry and contribute to regeneration across its value chain. Read more

Fashion Futures 2030

An interactive toolkit exploring how current trends - from climate change to nationalism and AI - could shape fashion in 2030 Read more

Growing our Future USA

Working together to accelerate the transition to a just and regenerative agriculture system in the United States. Read more

Tackling Microfibres at Source

Tackling Microfibres at Source offers textile manufacturers, brands and fashion retailers an opportunity to design intervention strategies. Learnings and insights from this project will be shared across the fashion industry pre-competitively in order to accelerate change. Read more

Tea 2030

Tea 2030 was set up in 2013 to help deliver a sustainable tea industry, from crop to cup. To do that, we needed the cooperation and collaboration across the tea industry, from pickers and packers to producers and purchasers. Read more

Latest

Honorary Treasurer & Trustee

We are looking for a treasurer who believes, as we do, to accelerate the transformation to a just and regenerative future and who is keen to use their skills, experience and networks to help govern our organisation.
Is there a just and regenerative future post-Roe? Four lessons and calls to action from practitioners of systems change

In 1973, abortion was made legal across the US after a landmark ruling known as Roe v. Wade. The US Supreme Court has now overturned that right. In its widespread implications, set to ripple way beyond reproductive rights, the move represents a significant threat to what’s urgently needed: a future that is socially just, as well as ecologically sound. Here, Forum for the Future’s Associate Director of Global Development, Priya Kvam, explores the issue as a systemic challenge and outlines four ke
Pathfinder

Pathfinder–a six-week long deep dive into systems change equips change makers with frameworks and tools to increase their capacity to work more systemically on complex challenges.
Neil Walker

Change Designer

The Five Capitals - a framework for sustainability

The Five Capitals Model provides a basis for understanding sustainability in terms of the economic concept of wealth creation or ‘capital’. Any organisation will use five types of capital to deliver its products or services. A sustainable organisation will maintain and where possible enhance these stocks of capital assets, rather than deplete or degrade them.
Reinventing the way the world works.

Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability non-profit. We specialise in addressing critical global challenges by catalysing change in key systems, from food to apparel, energy to shipping. We do this by convening transformational collaborations to drive change, by partnering with organisations to help them lead by example, and by building a global community of pioneers and change makers.
Jobs

We are a growing organisation and we are regularly on the look out for new recruits to join our teams around the world.
Sustainability and system change

Climate change, malnutrition, inequality, poverty, ecological degradation. The global challenges we face are so urgent and tricky that we need a solution to match their scale and complexity. This is where system change comes in. We use systems thinking to understand the web of interrelations that create complex problems, anticipate unintended consequences, and identify how and where to take action to meet the SDG goals.
Become a system change agent

Learn more about upcoming system change programmes and express your interest.
What is Net Positive?

We reinvent strategies for a 1.5°C world. Our Net Positive approach helps business put back more into society and environment than it takes out. Unilever’s pioneering commitment to eliminate fossil fuels from its operations and directly support the generation of more renewable energy than they consume was driven behind the scenes by Forum.
Growing our Future USA

Working together to accelerate the transition to a just and regenerative agriculture system in the United States.
Trailblazing sustainability strategies

Leadership in the 2020s is about your organisation’s ability to positively influence its operating context. We help you to understand the opportunities, and then how to unlock them.
Cotton 2040

Cotton 2040 aims to create a resilient cotton industry in an increasingly climate-disrupted world by bringing together stakeholders across the value chain.
6 ways Unilever has achieved success through sustainability - and how your business can too

A year ago this week, Unilever launched its Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), one of the most ambitious strategies that a global company has ever embarked on. Pioneering a bold new business model, the company pledged to double in size at the same time as halving its environmental footprint.