Our work is so varied that it can be hard to sum up what we do, so we’ve pulled together an overview of 10 of the projects we were most proud of in 2008 illustrating the range and variety of our work.

Buying a Better World

Public organisations spend £160 billion a year in the UK alone, so it's critically important to help them do so in ways which help build a sustainable future, improving people's quality of life and enhancing the environment. Our Buying a Better World report, launched in March, explained the benefits of sustainable procurement and focused on practical steps organisations can take to gain maximum benefit from the public purse. It was accompanied by a toolkit which included a demand review tool, a sustainable tender planner and a whole-life costing model.
 
The practical nature of the report has made it a buyer's manual in many organisations and its toolkit is recommended by the UK's Audit Commission and the National Health Service. It has been requested by the UN and the procurement offices of several global corporations, as well as organisations across the public and private sectors in the UK and around the world.

Climate Futures – how climate change will shape our world

We’ve heard a lot about the environmental impacts of climate change, but how will it change the societies we live in? In October, we released Climate Futures, a report produced in collaboration with HP, which looked at the political, economic, social and psychological impacts of climate change and examined five diverse scenarios for the world of 2030.

The report painted a vivid and challenging picture of what may lie ahead, but also gave guidance for businesses on what they can do now to help achieve the best possible future. It attracted worldwide media attention and has become our most downloaded publication. It was cited by the World Economics Forum in a paper for Davos, and we have used it to help our partners understand threats and opportunities and future-proof their strategy.

Ecosure and the future of paint

In May 2008 Dulux launched Ecosure, a high quality trade paint with a carbon footprint 25% smaller than its standard range. This was the fruit of a collaboration between Forum for the Future, AkzoNobel and Carillion to study the life-cycle of paint, from raw material production through manufacture, transport and use to final disposal, and identify how to make it more sustainable.

The project led to the creation of a streamlined tool to help businesses develop more sustainable products, the Environmental Impact Analyser. AkzoNobel has now used it to make significant improvements to its highest selling retail range, to be launched in 2009, which is projected to cut the carbon footprint of its paints by 7,000 tonnes a year (based on 2008 sales figures). It also plans to integrate more sustainable ways of working into other areas of its operations, including a paint tin recycling scheme and a closed loop water system for cleaning paintbrushes.

Sustainable Cities – making Bristol city region a model of excellence

In March 2008, we launched an ambitious 10-year programme aiming to make Bristol one of the world’s greenest cities, and the region a beacon of UK sustainability. Plans include improving the energy efficiency of homes, helping businesses commit to challenging cuts in CO2 emissions, encouraging local food production and consumption, and involving young people in developing their visions for a sustainable future. Walkit.com, a website making it easier for people to travel on foot, launched in Bristol in October.

We named Bristol the UK’s most sustainable city in our second annual Sustainable Cities Index, but highlighted how far our cities have to go to match international leaders like Seattle. Margaret Eaton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said the index “has driven real change by inspiring cities to adopt more ambitious sustainability strategies and by providing a framework against which they can benchmark their efforts."

Launching the London Sustainability Exchange

In Spring 2008, after five years incubation with Forum for the Future and with an impressive track record, The London Sustainability Exchange (LSx) became an independent charity in its own right. Founded in 2001 by the City of London and a group of influential partners, LSx aims to accelerate the transition to a sustainable London by connecting and motivating people.

Led by Director Samantha Heath and with a staff of 12, LSx will continue to focus on reducing London's environmental footprint, improving the lives of the capital's disadvantaged communities, improving the health of Londoners and building the knowledge and skills of communities to achieve these goals.

Farming Futures - communicating the risks and opportunities of climate change

Farming Futures is a communication project designed to inform and inspire farmers and land managers about the risks and opportunities climate change presents to their businesses, and promote behaviour change in the sector.  For the last two years it has been reaching out to farmers with factsheets and case studies, a dedicated website, presence at key national and regional events, and on-farm ‘seeing is believing’ seminars on topics from anaerobic digestion to new crops.  Farming Futures has helped bring climate change stories into ‘the Archers’, and has been covered by BBC News and numerous industry publications.
 
By March last year, 47% of farmers surveyed knew about Farming Futures, and it was voted the number one website for information on climate change and agriculture by Farmers Weekly in its climate change special publication. The project, now set to run for another year, has become the means by which the government’s Rural Climate Change Forum communicates with the industry. Ministers are also supportive, with Environment Secretary Hilary Benn congratulating us on our “impressive contribution” to awareness raising at the 2009 Oxford Farming Conference.

Putting climate change adaptation on the agenda

More volatile weather patterns bringing floods, drought and temperature extremes are already affecting the homes, harvests and livelihoods of millions of people around the world. With 25 years of climate change in the pipeline whatever we do now, adaptating to this new world is essential, and we have been working to push this critical issue higher up the agenda.
 
The Forum, working with the UK’s Department for International Development, has run a task force generating recommendations on how the public and private sectors can collaborate to finance adaptation to climate change. The task force produced a paper for the 2008 climate negotiations in Poznan which will help to ensure that adaptation is on the roadmap for the key Copenhagen talks this autumn. It has also worked with financial institutions to tackle aspects of the problem: taking climate-resilience into account in investment decisions; developing insurance against the risk of weather shocks; and providing access to finance for the most vulnerable.

Monsoons and miracles – sustainability in emerging economies

Green Futures, our magazine, launched Monsoons and Miracles, a special report on India’s journey to sustainable development, and one of a series taking an in-depth look at sustainability in the world’s major emerging economies. It reflects the Forum’s growing international focus and influence and follows the success of  Greening the Dragon, a similar  report on China.

Monsoons and Miracles features exclusive contributions from leading Indian and international commentators on the sub-continent, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It was launched at the Delhi Summit on Sustainable Development and demand in India has been such that additional copies have now been distributed via the UK High Commission.

The i-team - using innovation to solve public sector problems

Our i-team project demonstrated how cutting edge innovation techniques could be used to improve public services and encourage behaviour change, in a collaboration with global design consultancy IDEO and three local authorities, Suffolk, Kirklees and St Helens.
 
The councils identified climate change problems to put through a design process rarely used in the public sector, which uses ordinary people's insights and real-life experiences to come up with, and prototype, effective, sustainable solutions. All three are now working on a range of ideas designed to tackle climate change problems, including a web game for teenagers based on a virtual St Helens, and a low-carbon community centre in Kirklees where visitors can become familiar with energy saving ideas and devices.

Future-proofing imports from Kenya

Finlays, the global tea and flower producer, commissioned our futures team to help the company understand its operating context in Kenya over the next 15 years. Finlays had just acquired Flamingo Holdings, a business importing vegetables and flowers for the UK market.
 
Forum created a set of compelling scenarios for 2023 using desk research and more than 70 interviews, and an ambitious set of sustainability commitments for the company over the same timeframe. These were used to explore the future risks and opportunities for the company, and several top-level strategic ideas emerged. Finlays Commercial Director Simon Large, said: “Sustainability is now an unchallenged part of the company’s future”.