The Future of Sustainability: Looking Back to Go Forward

As humanity and the planet reach a critical inflection point, Forum’s latest Future of Sustainability thinking reflects on what the past can teach us about what is needed now if we are to shape a more just and regenerative future. Read more

Futures

Why futures for sustainability?

There is no data about the future, and prediction is an impossible game. But we can shape the future, and the best way to start is by imagining the future we want to see.

We use futures to help organisations grapple with uncertainty and change. By revealing the complex interplay of dynamic trends around us, and identifying risks, opportunities and powerful innovations, our futures work helps organisations to discover where to act for long-term success.

Our work in futures

We are leaders in applied futures, known for creating concrete, practical solutions and building the capacity of our partners for long-term thinking.

Sustainability and futures go hand in hand. We have a global reputation for futures work such as scenario building and, over the last 18 years, we have designed and delivered a huge range of futures projects and thought leadership. We are unique in our specialism of using futures for sustainability, using trends, visions and scenarios to allows us to challenge organisations' assumptions about the world and help map out routes to a sustainable future.

Live now: The Future of Sustainability: Looking Back to Go Forward.

The Future of Sustainability is an annual publication produced by Forum for the Future, identifying dynamic trends that help us and our partners to make sense of the world, to plan for the future, and to understand our respective roles in driving greater sustainability.

Explore the Futures Centre

Created in 2015 and powered by Forum for the Future, the Futures Centre is an open source platform using futures practice to help organisations and individuals grapple with uncertainty and change.

Visit the Futures Centre

The Future of Sustainability: Looking Back to Go Forward

As humanity and the planet reach a critical inflection point, Forum’s latest Future of Sustainability thinking reflects on what the past can teach us about what is needed now if we are to shape a more just and regenerative future. Read more

Indian Civil Society Future Trajectories for Climate Action

Bringing together climate mitigation-focused civil society organisations in India, to build resilience and increase collective impact through a participatory programme of futures and systems thinking. Read more

It's time to transform. Read our latest Future of Sustainability report

Forum for the Future's latest Future of Sustainability report explores five key dynamic areas with major influence on human, planetary and economic health, and reveals four distinct trajectories emerging from the COVID-19 crisis. 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

Fashion Futures 2030

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

<2°C Futures

Find out about the <2°C Futures Scenarios, created to help business navigate climate impacts and make more informed decisions. 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

Climate Futures 2030

Climate Futures analyses the social, political, economic and psychological consequences of climate change describing how different global responses could lead to five very different worlds by 2030. Read more

South Asia Futures

Applying our futures and systems expertise, we helped a global agency understand the future sources of vulnerability for children and adolescents in South Asia and how they might address them. Read more

Fashion Futures 2025

Working with Levi Strauss and Co using futures techniques to develop global scenarios for a sustainable fashion industry. Read more

Civil Society Futures

Civil Society Futures is a national conversation about how English civil society can flourish in a fast changing world, and how to maximise the positive effects of civic action and provide a guide to how to release its potential to drive positive change. Read more

Latest

Trustee (two roles)

Do you want to create an impactful change addressing critical global challenges? Do you have a collaborative approach to relationship building, a successful track record of leading through change, experience in convening and a commitment to our mission?
From personal heroes to global icons: Celebrating #WomenWhoRock this International Women’s Day

On International Women's Day, we are recognising and celebrating the women who inspire us. At Forum for the Future, we asked our colleagues to share messages of appreciation for prolific women in their lives in our exclusive #WomenWhoRock series. From personal heroes to global icons, the stories they share demonstrate the profound impact that women have on our lives and the world around us. In this blog, we highlight some of these inspiring women and their achievements.
No quick fixes to tackling systemic problems in the fashion industry

Microfibre shed from textiles constitutes an estimated 35 percent of all plastics in our oceans. While there are consumer solutions that reduce the amount of microfibre shedding, how can we look upstream at the manufacturing process to truly tackle the problem from end-to-end? Here, Forum’s Senior Strategist Karen Sim sheds light on how the fashion industry can overcome its systemic barriers and transform to a fairer, more equitable one.
Beyond acknowledgement towards meaningful collaboration: Regenerative agriculture through the lens of a Hopi agriculturalist

As momentum behind adopting regenerative approaches to farming in the United States gains traction, Forum for the Future speaks to Michael Kotutwa Johson, a 253rd-generation farmer and member of the Hopi Nation. Michael reflects on the use of complex ancient traditions in agriculture, the need to challenge assumptions and to recognise that many of the practices, tools and techniques being increasingly utilized are rooted not in something new, but in Indigenous wisdom.

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 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.