Top 10: Sustainability Associations
Associations focussed on sustainability exist to guide leaders in organisations and governments to a better future.
Often, they bring together businesses, politicians and academics to support collaboration and real-word changes.
The scale of this collective action, and knowledge sharing it brings, can make impactful changes happen quickly.
Associations can also help to educate, engage and empower communities on the journey to net zero.
Sustainability Magazine has ranked 10 of the top sustainability associations.
Read the full story in the first September 2025 edition of Sustainability Magazine.
10. Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP)
CEO: Sarah Mukherjee
Focus: Sustainability leadership
Founded: 1999
Location: Lincoln, UK
Formally known as the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), ISEP is a membership body that aims to empower leaders to make change. Its holistic view of sustainability includes impact assessment, environmental management and corporate sustainability.
ISEP says that its members “benefit from the recognition that a professional membership body provides” alongside knowledge sharing, advice and empathy from its community and professional development opportunities.
9. Global Impact Coalition (GIC)
CEO: Charlie Tan
Focus: Chemical industry
Founded: 2023
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
The GIC is a CEO-led platform uniting chemical industry giants and innovators to create systemic change. Originally incubated at the World Economic Forum, it relaunched as an independent entity in November 2023.
“Our mission is to accelerate the transition by fostering collaboration across the value chain, developing and scaling innovative technologies, and establishing new business models that reduce emissions and enhance circularity,” explains Charlie Tan, CEO of GIC.
8. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Director General: Subhra Bhattacharjee
Focus: Forest management
Founded: 1993
Location: Bonn, Germany
The FSC has become a global benchmark for sustainable forestry, trusted by NGOs, consumers and businesses worldwide. It has certified more than 160 million hectares of forests worldwide as managed sustainably.
“FSC was born out of a need,” FSC Director General Subhra Bhattacharjee told Sustainability Magazine. “As a 30-year-old organisation with a broad and diverse stakeholder base, FSC must contribute to a global shift in the way we perceive, protect and leverage forests for sustainable development.”
7. World Green Building Council (WorldGBC)
CEO: Cristina Gamboa
Focus: Built environment
Founded: 2002
Location: Toronto, Canada
The WGBC is a network of national Green Building Councils aiming to reduce the building and construction sector's emissions and bring buildings to net zero emissions.
In its 2024 Annual Report, CEO Cristina Gamboa and Chair Jennifer Layke said: “The built environment is the story we leave behind – a reflection of our priorities, our progress and our promises to the future.
“We are proud to lead a movement that bridges global ambition with local action.”
6. Ellen MacArthur Foundation
CEO: Jonquil Hackenberg
Focus: Circular economy
Founded: 2009
Location: Isle of Wight, UK
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation advocates for a circular economy, focusing on waste minimisation and reducing the need for disposal or even recycling.
The Foundation also explores opportunities across stakeholders and sectors while highlighting examples of how circular principles are being put into practice.
Founder and Chair of Trustees Dame Ellen MacArthur said in its 2024 Annual Report: “Through it all, the circular economy remains constant, a powerful, practical solution — one that businesses and governments around the world are increasingly embracing.”
5. Rainforest Alliance
CEO: Santiago Gowland
Focus: Conservation
Founded: 1987
Location: New York, US
The Rainforest Alliance provides environmental certification for sustainability in agriculture alongside developing and implementing conservation and community development programs. Its certification can be found on products like coffee, cocoa, tea and bananas.
Founder and Chairman Daniel Katz says: “Our work is groundbreaking; certification has not only helped companies recognise the impact of their sourcing choices, but has also helped connect consumers with the farmers and forest communities who steward the world’s most precious landscapes.”
4. Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC)
CEO: Manish Bapna
Focus: Legal action
Founded: 1970
Location: New York, US
The NRDC says it has more than three million members and online activists alongside the expertise of around 700 scientists, lawyers and other environmental specialists to confront the climate crisis.
“We are in the fight of our lives,” says NRDC President and CEO Manish Bapna. “If we fail, the consequences will be like nothing human civilisation has ever seen.
“We combine rigorous science, policy advocacy and legal expertise with millions of supporters providing political and lobbying muscle.”
3. The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
CEO: Jennifer Morris
Focus: Conservation
Founded: 1951
Location: Virginia, US
TNC says it is tackling the dual threats of accelerated climate change and biodiversity loss using science, equity and local on-the-ground experience. It looks to bring together solutions with policy expertise, partnerships and sustainable financing.
Jennifer Morris, CEO at TNC, says: “As a lifelong conservationist and now CEO of The Nature Conservancy, I am an impatient optimist. I hear the clock ticking on climate change… And yet, I am optimistic.”
2. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Director General: Kirsten Schuijt
Focus: Conservation
Founded: 1961
Location: Gland, Switzerland
The WWF works to preserve wildlife and reduce human impact on the environment. Since 1995 it has invested more than US$1bn in upwards of 12,000 conservation initiatives. The WWF website says that its mission is to “build a future in which people live in harmony with nature”.
The organisation was founded in 1961 and has since grown to include more than five million supporters. It has also evolved from saving species and landscapes to addressing larger global threats and forces that impact them.
Director General Kirsten Schuijt says: "The climate and biodiversity crises demand urgent action to create the change needed towards a nature positive world. This requires courage in order to reach true impact in the land- and seascapes we care about." Kirsten is a lifelong conservationist and vocal advocate for nature who first began her association with WWF as a youth volunteer ranger.
1. United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)
CEO: Sanda Ojiambo
Focus: Sustainable development
Founded: 2000
Location: New York, US
The UNGC describes itself as the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with more than 20,000 corporate participants and other stakeholders in more than 160 countries. It looks to bring companies together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society.
It aims to drive business awareness and action in support of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. “Fulfilling these ambitions will take an unprecedented effort by all sectors in society — and business has to play a very important role in the process,” its website says.
In her 2025 annual letter, CEO Sanda Ojiambo said: “For twenty-five years, our Ten Principles on human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption have helped define corporate responsibility and influence global policy and practice.
“Now more than ever, we need multisectoral, collective business leadership that builds bridges within and beyond sectors – leadership that inspires and unites, even in times of crisis.”
Read the full story in the first September 2025 edition of Sustainability Magazine.
