Designed to arm decision-makers with the data, insights and tools they need to develop more sustainable and secure global food systems.  Find out more here.

The Food Imperative

Join us on March 4th – 6th 2024. Click here to register

9th annual Sustainability Week, London, UK

Click here to register to the event (May 30th - June 1st)

3rd annual Sustainability Week US

Our sponsors provide financial support for this website . We endeavour to give our sponsors the opportunity to communicate their messages in placements that are clearly demarcated . Such placements are clearly labelled as Advertisement, Advertisement feature, Sponsored content, Sponsor’s perspective, “Brought to you by” the sponsor or words to that effect . Occasionally, we group together content from various sources relating to the same topic . In cases where content from The Economist Group is included, it will be clearly labelled as from The Economist or Economist Impact . At all times there is a clear division between our editorial staff and sponsors, and sponsors are never allowed to influence what our editorial teams write . Sponsors are solely responsible for their content, and their views do not necessarily reflect those of The Economist.

A forum to advance sustainability solutions and accelerate world-changing impact.

The Sustainability Project

a new initiative from Economist Impact dedicated to transforming global food systems for the future

Introducing The Food Imperative 

Powering progress: measuring the socioeconomic costs and benefits of investing in energy resilience for healthcare, education and water

How well prepared are 29 countries for the green transition and what are the potential impacts on the labour market? 

Green Skills Atlas

Amid global uncertainty, water cooperation is more important than ever


Water in the world of conflict

Realising ambitious pledges and goals

Net Zero & Energy

Preparing for environmental and social change

Resilience & Adaptation

Creating sustainable economic systems

Circular Economies

Building regenerative systems

Ecosystems & Resources

Strengthening societal trust, inclusiveness and cooperation

Social Sustainability

ISSUES

Home Page - Template: Default

As the world&#39;s attention turns to New York this September, two pivotal events converge, promising a month of dialogue and action on the most pressing global challenges. First, the 78th session of the UN General Assembly will gather leaders from across the globe to deliberate on issues ranging from conflict and humanitarian crises to sustainable development and climate change. Then, just as the diplomatic discussions conclude, New York Climate Week takes centre stage, amplifying the urgency of climate action. This month, we delve into the key takeaways from these key events, providing in-depth analysis and insights into the path forward.

Global Stage, Pressing Issues

Fresh insight

Watch, listen, learn

Spotlight

Shashank Nigam

Tonilyn Lim, Chief, programmes, United Nations Global Compact, talks biggest challenges in meeting the 2030 deadline for the SDGs and maintaining a business's commitment to sustainability amidst geopolitical struggles.


Tonilyn Lim

Klaus Zellmer, chief executive of Skoda Auto, talks ESG strategy within the automotive industry, growth of green skills in the sector and challenges in reporting scope 3 emissions.

 Klaus Zellmer

Co-authored by Jacqueline Novogratz, chief executive of Acumen, and Simon O’Connell, chief executive of SNV

 Jacqueline Novogratz & Simon O’Connell

Bobbie Mellor, Global head of sustainability and transparency, Vodafone Group, on how businesses and governments can encourage consumers to make more sustainable choices

Bobbie Mellor

Will Attenborough, Climate finance strategist on how to get insurance companies thinking beyond prioritising financial returns and the action needed moving forward in the next ten years.

Will Attenborough

Rasha Hasaneen, chief product and sustainability officer, Aspen Technology on the role of AI in combating climate change, making the current workforce fit for the green future, and the field where AI's biggest impact will be in the industrial complex.

Rasha Hasaneen

Adair Turner, Chair, Energy Transitions Commission on scaling green hydrogen economy, role of fossil fuels in the future and keeping community on board with green energy transition

Adair Turner

Mike Hyde, chief data officer at Trainline, discusses the need to increase rail use by at least 30% by 2035 to meet the UK Climate Change Committee's net-zero goals

Mike Hyde

Catherine Dolton, Chief sustainability officer, InterContinental Hotels Group, discusses sustainability strategy within the global hotel industry

Catherine Dolton 

Viviana Alvarez, former head of sustainability and corporate strategy, Unilever NA; executive director, cDots—on the need to accelerate green skills, qualities in the future generation of sustainability leaders and adaptation in recruitment trends

Viviana Alvarez

Phillip Cornell, global practice lead, energy & sustainability at Economist Impact in conversation with Clover Hogan, founder and activist, Force of Nature—on mobilising young minds towards climate action

Clover Hogan

A guest blog by Grace Chong,  head of financial regulatory at Drew & Napier LLC

Grace Chong

A guest blog by Vivek Kumar, chief executive of WWF-Singapore

Vivek Kumar

The Sustainability Project interviews Vibhuti Garg, director, South Asia, at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

Vibhuti Garg

Alice Ashpitel, head of sustainability for Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team discusses Scope 3, sustainable aviation fuels and practical leadership

Alice Ashpitel

Cities are incredibly vulnerable to climate change but they are also key to solving it, writes Joy Belmonte, mayor of Quezon City and Michal Mlynár, UN assistant secretary-general and acting executive director of UN-Habitat

Michal Mlynar and Joy Belmonte

Thomas Hale, professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Dr. Thomas Hale

Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), writes about turning climate pledges into decisive action in the aftermath of COP28. 

Manish Bapna

Moving away from dirty fossil fuels is an important first step, says Phyllis Cuttino, president and CEO of The Climate Reality Project, but ambiguity and vested interests threaten to derail significant progress.  

Phyllis Cuttino

UN Climate Change High-Level Champions from COP25 through to COP28 reflect on the key developments from Dubai and what’s needed to create a sustainable, resilient future for all

UN Climate Change High-Level Champions from COP25 through to COP28 

Currently, nearly 760m people in the world remain without access to electricity and an additional 840m are connected to an unreliable grid. The Sustainability Project speaks with Greg Jackson, founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, about the firm’s credentials as a disruptor and how innovation is helping to deliver cheaper energy to more households.

Greg Jackson 

Fabrice Beaulieu, chief marketing, sustainability and corporate affairs officer at Reckitt describes the importance of adopting AI to help consumer firms make more informed choices on the environment.


Fabrice Beaulieu

COP28* will test the world’s resolve to achieve a just energy transition. Do we all really mean what we say we will do to tackle climate change? Do we know how? 


Narsingh Chaudhary

Lia Nicholson, head of sustainability, Terrascope writes about the responding to the dual challenge of food security and the climate crisis. 

Lia Nicholson

New technologies and processes are exciting and important—but are just one piece of the climate puzzle, says Thomas Becker, vice-president of sustainability and mobility at BMW Group.

Thomas Becker

Mars’ vice president, corporate affairs and sustainability shares his expectations for COP28, effectively engaging the C-suite and addressing plastic waste

Andy Pharoah

A guest blog by Ahmed Aboutaleb, mayor of Rotterdam, the Netherlands

 Ahmed Aboutaleb

 A guest blog by Angela Wilkinson of the World Energy Council on redesigning global energy systems, managing diverse interests and collaboration at scale 


Angela Wilkinson

Marc Palahi - chief nature officer, holistiQ, Lombard Odier Investment Managers and a team of experts* explore landscape adaptation, forest resilience and new accounting frameworks as we seek to mitigate against the consequences of climate change

Marc Palahi

Economist Impact’s principal for sustainability and energy, Phillip Cornell, caught up with the head of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation at the 2023 International Vienna Energy and Climate Forum.

Gerd Müller

A guest blog by Ivo Mulder, Leader of UNEP's Climate Finance Unit

Ivo Mulder

A guest blog by Heidi Barnard, head of sustainability, NHS supply chain 

Heidi Barnard

A guest blog from Renata Lawton-Misra, manager, corporate sustainability and Paul Huggins, associate director from Carbon Trust 

Paul Higgins and Renata Lawton-Misra

Martin Koehring, global Director of impact at Forum for the Future and moderator at Economist Impact’s recent Countdown to COP28 event, highlights key takeaways from a session on the evolving role of the chief sustainability officer (CSO) as a change agent within organisations and beyond. 


Martin Koehring

Genevieve Edens and Matt Damon on why safe, affordable and sustainable access to clean water underpins our efforts to mitigate climate change

Matt Damon & Genevieve Edens

The Sustainability Project interviews Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27, and Razan Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28

Mahmoud Mohieldin and Her Excellency Razan Al Mubarak

A guest blog from Maria Outters, Chief Impact Officer at SBTi on how science-based targets may be the key to preventing the worst impacts of climate change

Maria Outters

Ahead of London Climate Action Week Razan Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28 on the need to put nature-positive solutions higher on the global agenda.

 Her Excellency Ms. Razan Al Mubarak

In conversation with Lauren Riley, chief sustainability officer and managing director for global environmental affairs at United Airlines

Lauren Riley 

In conversation with Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant secretary-general and chief executive, UN Global Compact

Sanda Ojiambo

The vice-president of the European Investment Bank, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, shares why efforts to regulate the use of microplastics and micropollutants must be accelerated.

Ricardo Mourinho Félix

A guest thought piece from Dr Katrin Eggenberger, former foreign minister of Liechtenstein and academic on why new commercial alliances are essential in a global drive towards a zero-carbon-emission marketplace.

Katrin Eggenberger

Shopify’s head of sustainability talks about moving away from the net-zero emissions goal and creating new pathways towards decarbonisation

Stacy Kauk

Morgane Yvergniaux, head of sustainable terroirs at Pernod Ricard, talks about regenerative agriculture and striking the right balance for nature and people

Morgane Yvergniaux

A guest blog on the need to balance commercial and environmental interests by Dr Michael Grenfell, Executive Director of Enforcement at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

Michael Grenfell

Zainab Salbi, co-founder of Daughters for Earth, explores the critical role of women in addressing the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises

Zainab Salbi

Climate-tech entrepreneur Dr David Bryngelsson, founder and CEO of CarbonCloud, on the need for greater transparency across the entire supply chain

David Bryngelsson

A guest blog about the need to tackle habitat conversion and deforestation, by Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund in the United States

Carter Roberts

We Mean Business Coalition’s CEO dives deep into corporate decarbonisation and discusses hopes for COP27 

María Mendiluce 

How can technology support locally-led climate solutions? 

Joycelyn Longdon

A conversation with climate policy leader Christiana Figueres on energy security, the invasion of Ukraine, the power of action to counter hopelessness, and how we can effectively "invest in our planet"

Christiana Figueres

TSP&#39;s &quot;Voices&quot; series taps into the minds of global changemakers and sustainability leaders who are tackling the biggest challenges of our time.

Voices

What&#39;s new

The Value Chain Navigator (VCN) is an open digital platform designed to change the way you understand, manage and reduce your company’s scope 3 emissions.

Value Chain Navigator

Progress in accelerating the green transition is under threat as a result of business leaders’ failure to develop and source green skills.

Green skills: driving the transition to a more sustainable future Infographic

How companies across four industries are reducing emissions

Scoring Decarbonization Progress

This report delves into how the broader shift to net zero is impacting IT corporate leaders and explores their core challenges on the path to net zero.

Ctrl + Shift + Green The role of IT leaders in navigating net zero

Climate tech: bridging the gap between innovation and impact

Reports and tools

Events

The fashion industry impacts the ocean in many ways. The production of our clothes is responsible for around 10% of CO2 emissions, more than aviation and shipping combined. These emissions accelerate the climate crisis, leading to devastating impacts on the ocean, such as the global coral-bleaching events we are currently witnessing. Likewise, higher emissions lead to ocean acidification, impacting marine biodiversity. 

Tackling fashion’s environmental impact through regulation

By Julia Marsh, co-founder and chief executive of Sway, and Emy Kane, managing director of Lonely Whale

What if plastic could evolve to replenish the planet?

Harnessing seaweed’s potential can generate benefits across a wide range of the UN’s SDGs as well as generate returns for businesses and investors - writes Eugene Klerk, head of ESG research at Standard Chartered

Kelp is on the way

UNESCO will host the first Ocean Literacy World Conference in Venice this week to promote a more harmonious relationship between humans and the ocean

Ocean literacy: The “enabling factor” for success in all ocean issues

Explore the World Ocean Initiative and dive into in-depth coverage addressing the interrelated challenges of ocean health, ocean pollution and climate change.