Sophia Courtney

Senior Project Officer

Background

I joined Forum for the Future in October 2018 following a role as sustainability officer King’s College London where I led a behaviour change programme for staff and students across the university. I have an MA in Environment, Politics & Globalisation from Kings College London with a dissertation focusing on citizen science and public policy and a BA in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from the University of East Anglia.

At Forum I provide project support across the organisation and work on our large multi-stakeholder collaborative projects across the Challenge Labs like the Protein Challenge 2040 and Cotton 2040. I also work across other areas in the 1.5 degrees, Sustainable Nutrition and Value Chains & Livelihoods challenge labs.

Dream project

My dream project would exist in the intersection between the environment and gender equality. How can we create awareness that environmental challenges unequally impact women and girls? How can solutions to environmental challenges also create a fairer, more equal society that ensures that everyone has equal opportunities when it comes to access to natural resources, healthy environment, and distribution of food?

What floats my boat outside of work

Mountains, cycling, trying (and failing) to grow houseplants and going on adventures.

Latest

Love, futures and philanthropy: Why giving in a polycrisis needs to start from the heart

How do love, futures and philanthropy intersect, and why is this intersection so critical in tackling complex challenges in a polycrisis? Hannah Pathak, Forum’s International Managing Director, explores more in this blog.
Why organisations must prioritise climate and health in 2024 – and how some already are

Following World Health Day this past Sunday, Hannah Pathak, Forum’s International Managing Director and co-director of the Climate and Health Coalition, shares findings from a recent network roundtable about how organisations are focusing on climate and health in 2024, and why taking action now is more urgent than ever.
Pathways to transforming unethical recruitment practices

If a strong foundation of trust among diverse stakeholders is established in a complex system, how can this be built on to create lasting, effective change? In the last of a three-part blog series, we explore possible pathways to an effective changemaking system in responsible recruitment, and opportunities for value chain actors to act in transformative ways.
The women of Madre Tierra are fighting for farmworker justice. Here’s how.

Hormis, Elvira and Claudia are three of over two million farmworkers working to grow and harvest crops for the over 331 million people who live in the US. For Farmworker Awareness Week, Christina Daniels-Freeman, Programs Advisor at Forum for the Future, sat down with these three fierce advocates to learn about their stories, groundbreaking potential of the upcoming Farm Bill, and the role we all must play in fighting for farmworker justice.

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?