SB Brand-Led Culture Change 2024 - Full Program Announced!

Sally Uren

CEO
Forum for the Future

Sally oversees Forum’s mission to accelerate a big shift towards a sustainable future by catalysing transformational change in global systems.

This involves working with global organisations, to address complex challenges in systems such as food, energy, apparel and shipping. Sally is directly involved in a number of projects at Forum including Cotton 2040, a collaboration to accelerate the mainstreaming of sustainable cotton. As well as regularly speaking at conferences and writing for publications, Sally is also an independent advisor on Advisory Boards for several global businesses.

Sally Uren is tagged in 20 stories.
In the Face of a Polycrisis, a Transformative Mindset Is Business’ Only Way Forward
In the Face of a Polycrisis, a Transformative Mindset Is Business’ Only Way Forward

Business Case / Forum for the Future’s latest 'Future of Sustainability' report sets out four plausible trajectories for how companies can respond to current threats and opportunities across markets. - 6 months ago

COP27: Holding Both Hope and Despair as We Fight For Every 0.1°C
COP27: Holding Both Hope and Despair as We Fight For Every 0.1°C

Collaboration / The first COP took place in 1995 — 27 years later, and it’s easy to understand the scepticism. We’re still quite a long way from universal adoption by all nations and private sector actors of net-zero strategies that align with the urgent timescales science tells us are needed. But no other issue brings 198 nation states together in this way. - 1 year ago

Leading Brands Share Mix of Success Stories, Cautionary Tales at SB’21 Madrid
Leading Brands Share Mix of Success Stories, Cautionary Tales at SB’21 Madrid

Walking the Talk / While showcasing brands leading the charge toward sustainability — including Interface and Tony’s Chocolonely — SB’21 Madrid gave equal weight to just how much work we have left to do: Only 13% of companies can accurately deem themselves “sustainable.” - 2 years ago

In a COVID-19 World, What’s the Future of Organisational Purpose?
In a COVID-19 World, What’s the Future of Organisational Purpose?

Organizational Change / As immense disruption continues around the globe, the spotlight on the role of business in tackling social and environmental challenges is intensifying. Here, Dr Sally Uren, Chief Executive of Forum for the Future, outlines why now is the time to re-evaluate corporate purpose. - 2 years ago

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From What to How: Enter the Era of Transformation
From What to How: Enter the Era of Transformation

Leadership / With a goal of contributing to change and understanding how COVID-19 will influence sustainable development; at Quiero, we have undertaken an ambitious project: #aBetterWay — a search for answers from our global community of leaders based on reflection, learning and action. - 3 years ago

Insights from the Big Apple: How Do We Turn the Glitz of Climate Week into Action?
Insights from the Big Apple: How Do We Turn the Glitz of Climate Week into Action?

Walking the Talk / Climate Week NYC saw the UN declare the 2020s “the decade of delivery.” But while progress has been made, are we too self-congratulatory, staying comfortable within our own echo chambers? Are we really delivering enough at the scale and pace needed? - 4 years ago

Forum for the Future: Building Collaboration at the Intersection of Vision and Action
Forum for the Future: Building Collaboration at the Intersection of Vision and Action

Collaboration / CEO Dr. Sally Uren has a realistic understanding of collaborations and shares how combining forces is the way forward. - 4 years ago

No More Band-Aids: We Need a Radical New Plan, Report Warns
No More Band-Aids: We Need a Radical New Plan, Report Warns

Walking the Talk / Rising nationalism and global migration are among seven trends impacting future of sustainability, according to a new report from Forum for the Future. - 5 years ago

How a Practical Guide to Sourcing Sustainable Cotton Could Help Transform the Industry
How a Practical Guide to Sourcing Sustainable Cotton Could Help Transform the Industry

Supply Chain / ‘I would like to source more sustainable cotton, but I’m not quite sure where to start. There seems to be an awful lot of standards out there, and I’m not quite sure what the differences are between them.’ ‘I’d like to increase the volumes of sustainable cotton I buy, but I’m worried about sourcing different types of sustainable cotton — does a portfolio approach work?’ ‘I want to source sustainable cotton. I just want this to be easy. I wonder how other brands are doing it.’ - 5 years ago

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Why My OBE Shows That the Greatest Sustainability Challenges Lie Ahead, Not Behind Us
Why My OBE Shows That the Greatest Sustainability Challenges Lie Ahead, Not Behind Us

Leadership / On Thursday, June 14th, I will be with my closest family at Buckingham Palace, proudly receiving my OBE. For those outside the UK, this may not mean much (unless you’ve been watching “The Crown”), but the award is a public recognition of doing something useful — in my case, for services to sustainability. - 5 years ago

Growing the Next Generation of Change Agents to Tackle Today’s ‘Wicked’ Problems
Growing the Next Generation of Change Agents to Tackle Today’s ‘Wicked’ Problems

Leadership / The world is complex and interconnected. When we pull one lever in a system, it ripples throughout. Pull the right levers and you can solve some of the most complex problems, pull the wrong one and it can be disastrous. This is why it is critical to take a systems approach when solving complex, or what Sally Uren, CEO at Forum of the Future, calls “wicked” problems. - 5 years ago

SB'17 Copenhagen, Day 2: Circularity, Impact Valuation and Other Ways to Put a ‘Positive’ Spin on Business
SB'17 Copenhagen, Day 2: Circularity, Impact Valuation and Other Ways to Put a ‘Positive’ Spin on Business

The Next Economy / How a T-Shirt Is Driving a Circular Economy by Melanie Vella In this main stage session, Forum for the Future CEO Sally Uren returned to interview Jeffrey Hogue, Chief Sustainability Officer at C&A, to delve into the organic fibre that made up Sally’s t-shirt, quite literally. - 6 years ago

What Might the Workplace Look Like by 2036?
What Might the Workplace Look Like by 2036?

Organizational Change / Automation, artificial intelligence, the growth of the informal economy and shifts away from command-and-control power cultures are all trends that are profoundly shaping the workplace. But what will the future workplace look like? Of course, the honest answer is that we don’t really know. - 6 years ago

Activating Purpose – A Malaysian Perspective
Activating Purpose – A Malaysian Perspective

Stakeholder Trends and Insights / Last week saw the second Sustainable Brands conference hosted in Kuala Lumpur, focusing on the theme of Activating Purpose. Purpose – possibly one of the most over-used and broadly defined words out there right now. Yet, it was a great hook on which to peg a conversation about hopes and ambitions for sustainability, as well as the current performance of brands and businesses in Malaysia with sustainability aspirations. - 7 years ago

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How Being Down Under Helped Me See Brexit the Right Way Up
How Being Down Under Helped Me See Brexit the Right Way Up

Stakeholder Trends and Insights / I’ve just arrived back from Australia, where I was sharing Forum for the Future’s work at the first Sustainable Brands conference in the region. I left London on the day that 52 percent of the UK population voted to leave the EU. I left with a very heavy heart, dumbstruck that such a body blow to one of the most important integration projects since WWII had been delivered. For the next few days I would wake (admittedly, at totally the wrong time for my UK-based body clock), with a profound sense of loss, which took a few seconds to pin-point to the outcome of the vote. - 7 years ago

Lessons from Spirituality, Nature and Business on the Meaning of Purpose and How to Activate It
Lessons from Spirituality, Nature and Business on the Meaning of Purpose and How to Activate It

Behavior Change / The purpose of business is changing. While historically, business students have been taught that the purpose of business solely is to increase investors’ profits — known as the Friedman Doctrine — the most successful brands are searching for a deeper meaning. Defining and activating purpose in business was the key theme of Tuesday evening’s plenaries at Sustainable Brands 2016. While Millennials often receive credit for compelling companies to embrace higher ideals, this actually is something all generations of demanded, said Shannon Schuyler, Chief Purpose Officer at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). However, because Millennials are such a large demographic and constantly communicate via technology, their voices are being heard. - 7 years ago

#SB14London Mnemonic #2: 10 Insights from the Final Morning
#SB14London Mnemonic #2: 10 Insights from the Final Morning

Blog / And the third morning of SB London picked up where the second one ended. - 9 years ago

Nine Insights and Nine Themes from #SB14London, Morning 2
Nine Insights and Nine Themes from #SB14London, Morning 2

Blog / The first morning of SB London featured some excellent speakers and stories, from Lyf Shoes’ Aly Khalifa to Michael Dickstein from Heineken to B&Q’s Chris Moss. Between them, this brilliant lineup delivered some great insights, accompanied by several common themes. Happily, they spell the first two objectives of the entire conference. Here they are: - 9 years ago

Driving Behavior Change: From Pioneering Practice to Tipping Point and Beyond
Driving Behavior Change: From Pioneering Practice to Tipping Point and Beyond

Behavior Change / If you’re reading this then it’s safe to assume you are familiar with the global ecological and societal debt that currently accompanies the more familiar economic one. So, no need to remind you that planet Earth will probably make its way through this crisis — it just isn’t clear that we will. - 10 years ago

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How Might We Re:Imagine Consumption? Conditions for Success and a Call for Collaboration
How Might We Re:Imagine Consumption? Conditions for Success and a Call for Collaboration

Behavior Change / Consumption (noun); the action of using a resource. We know consumption is a primary driver of the inherent unsustainability of modern living. For those yet to be convinced that our way of life is not sustainable (adjective — able to be maintained at a certain level), reflect on the fact that last Friday, May 10th, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere peaked at 400 ppm. Also reflect on the fact that the desire for a $1 T-shirt has driven the most appalling standards in many apparel supply chains and the recent deaths of over 1000 garment workers in Bangladesh. - 10 years ago