Content Hub

The COVID-19 crisis is having a devastating impact – both in terms of lives lost and economic disruption. At Forum for the Future, we believe that it would be tragic to go back to yesterday’s “business-as-usual”; moments of radical disruption like this provide unprecedented opportunities to reinvent the future. We are therefore calling for business, governments, civil society and communities to seize this moment in helping to deliver a more just, sustainable and resilient world.

Read about our approach

This page is a dedicated Forum for the Future content hub for all articles, analysis, tools, insights and systemic approaches related to COVID-19.

TRAJECTORIES

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause widespread disruption around the world, how are we all responding, what are the implications for creating a sustainable future, and where exactly do we go from here.

To find out more about the four emerging trajectories take a look at the new Future of Sustainability report, titled 'From System Shock to System Change - Time to Transform'.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP IN THE TIME OF CORONA

A blog series in which Forum for the Future’s Founder Director, Jonathon Porritt, and Chief Executive, Dr Sally Uren, each explore different aspects of corporate leadership in addressing the coronavirus crisis.

Do you want the good news? Or the bad? - Jonathon Porritt
Time to transform: how are you harnessing disruption to drive lasting change? - Sally Uren
A new dawn for nature-based solutions? - Sally Uren
Build Back Fairer - and Healthier - Jonathon Porritt
Time for business to find its voice, speak up and act for change - Sally Uren
High Stakes for a Low Carbon Future - Jonathon Porritt
Transform, Collapse or Disciplined Change? How businesses action will determine what happens next - Sally Uren
Beyond COVID-19: Can Business Really ‘Build Back Better’? - Jonathon Porritt

BLOGS AND ARTICLES

Warning: More turbulence and disruption ahead
Moving beyond lockdown doesn’t mean we are past disruption and unpredictability. James Payne, Associate Director of Transformational Strategies at Forum for the Future, weighs in on how businesses can better prepare for a turbulent decade.
Navigating the transition to sustainability amidst new forces, positive and negative
Caroline Ashley, Global Director of System Change Programmes at Forum for the Future, examines the emergent positive and negative forces actively shaping the post-COVID-19 reality and reasserts the need for a just transition.
Building the future of food during crisis
An analysis of how COVID-19 has exposed the strengths, as well as the fragilities and weaknesses in the food system, and how people and organisations operating in the food system are starting to respond to this immense challenge. From Lesley Mitchell, Associate Director of Sustainable Nutrition and Roberta Iley, Principal Change Designer.
Growing our Future: Scaling Regenerative Agriculture in the United States
Growing our Future: Building a Resilient and Regenerative Foundation for the Food System in the US
Lesley Mitchell, Associate Director, Sustainable Nutrition, introduces the collaborative context, vision and roadmap outlined in Forum for the Future's latest report Growing our Future: Scaling Regenerative Agriculture in the US.
Aviation: no going back
Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future, examines the COVID-19 shock to the aviation industry, and what that means not just for a sustainable future for airlines, but their survival.
COVID-19 response: An open letter to global governments
Dr Sally Uren pens an open letter to governments meeting w/c 27/04 to explore how to organise a green economic recovery, outlining a wish list of sustainability considerations that must be central to coronavirus recovery plans.
How can we emerge from the crisis into a more resilient, sustainable future?
An outline of Forum's programmatic approach in response to COVID-19, including an overview of upcoming events.
Coronavirus Response: The green economy has regeneration at its core
Green businesses can lead the recovery and also equip others to create a more sustainable future, argues Forum for the Future's Hannah Pathak (article originally published on BusinessGreen.com).
From system shock to systems change: Why we need to transform commodity value chains (and what this means for cotton)
A reflection piece on supply chains from Charlene Collison, Associate Director, Sustainable Value Chains and Livelihoods
COVID-19: a dress rehearsal for the climate emergency?
Sally Uren, Chief Executive, examines how the novel COVID-19 virus could help us prepare for necessary change and the likely disruptions in the next decade, as we urgently transform entire systems to achieve carbon neutrality.
Turning up for work in post-COVID times
The COVID-19 pandemic is a call for us to work together in new ways. This articles looks at how Forum is changing and what is needed to thrive in uncertainty.
COVID-19: Building resilience for a changing world
A note from our Chief Executive, Sally Uren, on the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and our response.

DIARY OF DISCONTINUITY

The Diary of Discontinuity, from our staff and our partners, examines the day-to-day experience of living in a COVID-19 discontinuity to support others in navigating this moment of massive change. And is intended to give us insight into the personal aspect of living the complexity of a shifting paradigm and help us learn, what it takes, and what it doesn’t, to achieve a more regenerative future. Contributions encouraged at [email protected]

22 June 2020: Not a black swan from Oriana Brine, Senior Strategist, Forum for the Future
5 June 2020: Relevant reading for the intersection between racism and the climate crisis
29 May 2020: Discomfort Food: seeing food industry labour clearly from Alisha Bhagat, Alisha Futurist and Senior Strategist, Forum for the Future Americas.
21 May 2020: It’s everyone’s problem: The plight of migrant workers in India from Hansika Singh, Principal Strategist, Forum India
19 May 2020: The elephant on the menu from Miriam Fathalla (external submission)
14 May 2020: The world that disappeared from Lucinda Thurmer, Content and Digital Communications Executive, Forum UK
7 May 2020: Our lives have changed. Will our mindsets change too? from Zoe Le Grand, Principal Partnership Manager, Forum UK
30 April 2020: Economy, inequality and my life as a new parent during COVID-19 from Rodrigo Bautista, Principal Change Designer, Forum Americas
17 April 2020: Why a diary of discontinuity? from Anna Warrington, Director, Forum India

EVENTS

We are currently organising a series of events designed to help our partners make sense of the change we are all experiencing, provide them with tools, insights and systemic approaches to help navigate the uncertainty of the status quo and the complexity of the decade ahead, and discover where to act for long-term success in the systems they are operating in.

View all of our upcoming events

You can view recordings from our recent webinars, including the Future of Sustainability launch events, on our YouTube channel

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If you are concerned about COVID-19 and need further advice, seek information from your local government and health providers. Links to advice for our office locations are as follows: India, United Kingdom, United States, Singapore. Uncertainty and crises can be challenging for everyone, please also take care of your mental health during this time, with more information on actions you can take to do so here (from a UK source).

Latest

Private Sector Development Manager

Are you passionate about creating a fundamental change for a just and regenerative future? Are you a creative fundraiser with a particular interest in the role of the private sector in creating change? Do you have a track record in generating income from the private sector to create transformational change? If so, then this is a unique opportunity for you.
Investigating opportunities to reduce microfibre pollution from the fashion industry

Our latest report, Tackling Microfibres at Source: Investigating opportunities to reduce microfibre pollution from the fashion industry through textile design and manufacturing innovation, presents findings from our 21-month long research and investigative process, and shares recommendations for how textile manufacturers, brands and retailers can take active steps to reduce microfibre pollution.
Climate catastrophe or a promising, sustainable future? Our collective willingness to ‘go further and act faster’ will likely decide

Forum for the Future’s new 2023-2025 strategy, For a just and regenerative future, calls on us all to ‘go further and act faster’ if we’re to tackle our intensifying social, environmental and economic challenges. But we need to be clear on what that means. Forum’s CEO, Dr Sally Uren, explores what taking systemic, urgent action really looks like.
Turning insights into action: key takeaways from Cotton 2040’s Masterclass series

As the Cotton 2040 initiative draws to a close in 2023, Forum’s Principal Programme Manager Hannah Cunneen, Principal Sustainability Strategist Yamini Srivastava, and Change Strategist Bhairevi Aiyer reflect on the key takeaways from Cotton 2040’s Masterclass series, co-hosted with our technical partners WTW Climate Resilience Hub.

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.
Growing our Future USA

Working together to accelerate the transition to a just and regenerative agriculture system in the United States.
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.
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.
Become a system change agent

Learn more about upcoming system change programmes and express your interest.
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.