Felicity Butler

Principal Change Designer

Background

I have worked for the last twenty years in ethical trade, and in particular, my work has focused on gender justice, sustainability and innovation in agricultural value chains. My experience spans multiple scales of supply chains and regions, from working for a coffee co-op in Latin America, to importing Fairtrade nuts from the Amazon to UK supermarkets, to researching women’s unpaid work for my collaborative PhD with The Body Shop. I am as comfortable in the field, in the back of a pick-up truck, as I am facilitating multi-stakeholder processes. Most of all, I love working with passionate people to disrupt the status quo and work towards systemic change.

Dream project

My dream project would challenge the imbalance of power and inequality. It would involve all the different actors in the supply chain, in particular women and young people. I would use participatory methodologies, storytelling, and maybe role-play. Ideally, it would be in Latin America because I love speaking Spanish; and I have a long history in the region. And if I had to choose a product, it would be coffee. Coffee was where it all began for me; working in a co-op in Nicaragua brought all my learning to life. Plus, I love drinking it.

What floats my boat outside work

Belly ache laughs with my daughter, delicious tasting ethical coffee and chocolate, studying tide times to plan my next sea dip, running hard with my running club, regular yoga, and hiking on the South Downs.

I also love travelling and experiencing connections, whether it's with someone at the airport, on a coffee farm, with a street vendor or business owner. I love delving deep into another place, culture, space. My daughter is fast becoming my best travel companion, and we love our adventures together, locally or further afield.

Latest

How medical leadership can play a critical role in solving the climate and health crisis

With the dual crisis of climate and health intensifying every single day, it is critical for medical leadership to step up and play a catalytic role. Dr Emma Iovoli, Life Sciences Consultant – Climate and health, recommends ways in which medical leaders can contribute and drive co-benefits for climate and health within their organisations.
The role of systems thinking to achieve food security and resilient food chains in India

India faces an urgent need to ensure food and nutrition security for a growing population, while also securing sustainable livelihoods and responding to urgent climate needs. However, these different and urgent needs can often compete with or crowd out each other. Here, Forum's Principal Strategist Hansika Singh makes the case for systems thinking to achieve food security resilient food systems in India.
Latha Swamy

Principal, Food & Regenerative Agriculture
Transforming the purpose of business - Redirect

More and more businesses like are setting ambitious targets for positive impact on their operations, value chains and wider operating context. For more than 25 years we have partnered with businesses to navigate this complexity and design impactful solutions that deliver the deeper change that’s needed. Why not get in touch to find out more?

Latha Swamy

Principal, Food & Regenerative Agriculture
Kristin Ruby

Private Sector Development Lead
Martin Koehring

Global Director of Impact
Sophie Robins

Principal Change Designer
Kunal Sharma

Global Strategic Lead, Energy
Matthew Foster

Director, Development and Communications
Clara Hesseler

Team Assistant
Annabel Johnstone

Project Officer
Vi Nguyen

Principal Sustainability Strategist (Sustainable Finance)
Bhairevi Aiyer

Change Strategist

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.
For a just and regenerative future

Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability non-profit running out of offices in the UK, US, India and Singapore.
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 US

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.
Transport or Mobility: What’s the difference and why does it matter?

Recently, the word transportation is being replaced with mobility. Why is this happening? What’s the difference between them? And why should we care about this change?
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.
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.