Laura McGonigal

Trustee

Laura is Global Head of Sustainability Transformation at CHANEL. She has a decade of experience distilling complex sustainability issues into business strategy and programmes designed to have a positive impact on people and planet. Laura previously led brand, product, and corporate sustainability teams at Aesop, Ecover, method, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Reckitt.

Before forging a career in sustainability, Laura worked in advertising and behaviour change, advising brands including Intel, Nestlé Mars, and Kraft Heinz. Finding a passion for sustainability, Laura completed Forum for the Future’s MA in Leadership for Sustainable Development.

"Forum have the best minds in systems change for sustainability on their team and are equipping a global community of change makers with the same skills. These skills couldn’t be needed more as we face increasingly complex and urgent challenges like the climate emergency. Having studied with Forum in 2011, I’m delighted to work with them again as we move into the 2020s and they accelerate the shift towards a sustainability future."

Latest

Advancing climate justice: A call to action for businesses

Explore the insights from The Business Guide to Advancing Climate Justice, co-published by Forum for the Future and B Lab U.S. and Canada, with reflections from Ksenia Benifand, American Climate Futures’ Program Director.
Shape Just Transition Pathways

There are a multitude of decarbonisation solutions and many technically possible pathways to achieving net-zero, but there is a risk that some pathways will be incremental and others may perpetuate harm to people and the planet. We enable change actors in the energy system to navigate the evolving energy landscape that is being driven by innovation in energy technologies, business models and government policy.
Reimagine Purpose

The energy transition holds the potential to shape a more equitable world, but also to perpetuate and grow existing energy, economic and social inequities. We need to reimagine the purpose of the energy system, ensuring it reflects the needs of citizens and communities and best enables a transition to a future-fit system that delivers just and regenerative outcomes.
Scale socially just, ecologically safe and regenerative RE

Scaling renewable energy offers affordable, reliable energy and fights climate change. However, unregulated deployment may bring environmental, social, and human rights issues. We collaborate with energy change actors to co-create a vision and principles for socially equitable and environmentally responsible renewable energy.

Komala Ramachandra

Komala Ramachandra has been a human rights advocate and lawyer for nearly two decades, promoting transparency, corporate accountability, and access to remedy for individuals and communities around the world.
Deepak Subramanian

Deepak Subramanian is a Member of the Management Committee of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), the Indian subsidiary of Unilever, and a publicly listed company in India with a market cap of 70 billion USD.
Deepa Iyer

Deepa is an impact investor and independent advisor who invests globally and flexibly across the returns continuum. She advises social enterprises, impact investing funds, private foundations, family offices, endowments, and traditional venture capital funds on strategy, structure, individual investments and portfolios, impact, and emerging markets.
Emily Bushby

Emily Bushby is Deputy CEO at Nesta and BIT. Prior to this, Emily was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at GuarantCo and her previous roles have included leading the finance functions at a world top ten university and a medical related charity, as well as performing mergers and acquisitions for a highly acquisitive FTSE 30 business and investment management within the banking sector.
Rita Clifton CBE

Rita is a portfolio chair and non-executive director of leading businesses and in the non-profit sector. She joined Forum for the Future as Chair of the Board of Trustees in December, 2020.
Andrew Winston

Andrew is a globally recognized expert on how companies can navigate and profit from humanity’s biggest challenges. His book, The Big Pivot, was selected as one of the "Best Business Books" by Strategy+Business magazine.
Noa Gafni

Dr. Noa Gafni is an expert in social and environmental impact, innovation, and ESG.
Jonny Wates

Jonny sees sustainability as a key to the long term resilience of organisations, humanity and the planet itself. He is a fourth generation owner of the Wates Group, where the common cause of the owners is to hand on a stronger enterprise to the next generation.
Heather Grady

Heather is a Vice President in the San Francisco office of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and leads the organization’s strategy and program development in global philanthropy, including collaboratives and research.
Charlotte Ersbøll

Charlotte joined the board of Forum for the Future in 2019. She is a senior advisor to the United Nations Global Compact, and a partner in Hansen & Ersbøll Agenda.

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.
Jobs

We are a growing organisation and we are regularly on the look out for new recruits to join our teams around the world.
For a just and regenerative future

Forum for the Future is a leading international sustainability organisation running out of offices in the UK, US, India and Singapore.
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.
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?
Become a system change agent

Learn more about upcoming system change programmes and express your interest.
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.
Transforming the Purpose of Business

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?