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Although the origins of the contemporary environmental movement can be traced back to the 19th century, some of the most ground-breaking developments have taken place over the past 25 years.
From the Kyoto Protocol coming into force, to the passing of the Climate Change Act and the signing of the Paris Agreement, the events of the past quarter of a century have driven sustainability and environmental protection into the mainstream.
“There was very little awareness at all around climate change before, with the big issues being challenges like acid rain, ozone layer depletion and contaminated land,” says IEMA deputy CEO Martin Baxter. “There has been this groundswell of recognition that organisations and companies need to do a lot more to manage their climate and environmental impacts and report on them.”
Legislation, regulation, international treaties and standards such as ISO 14001 have all helped compel businesses and governments to think about sustainability, although the biggest driver might be public pressure.
The rise of social media and the unfathomable growth of the internet have made the world more connected than ever before, giving us access to real-time information on the environment and the latest scientific research.
At the same time, the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events over the past 25 years have left us in no doubt about the science behind environmental changes, with climate records tumbling like dominoes.
“There was no Facebook 25 years ago, no TikTok, no Instagram, so awareness in society around sustainability issues has gone exponential,” says IEMA Fellow and non-executive director Dr Shamir Ghumra.
“It has helped shift the dialogue from ‘is there a problem?’ which we probably had in the 1990s, to ‘we have a problem’. Our societal literacy on sustainability has improved massively, but with that has also come the growth of misinformation.”
Films and documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth and Before the Flood have also played a key role in raising awareness of climate change, while plastic waste, biodiversity loss and overpopulation are among many other issues to have gained wider attention.
“Most people now have a good basic understanding of the environment and sustainability,” says Owen Anderson, IEMA CEnv and head of sustainability at OVO.
“When I was at university, it was a class of about seven of us and it felt like a super-specialist subject, but now when I tell people I work in sustainability, they immediately understand what that means.”
Perhaps one of the most important changes in recent times has been a broader understanding of the social considerations needed for sustainable development, driven in part by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Tackling issues of inequality, modern slavery and poor health are now inextricably linked to the environmental challenges that were the main focus of sustainability professionals at the start of the century.
“As the understanding of sustainability has grown in society, business and organisations have adapted and evolved to recognise broader sustainability issues – it’s fascinating,” says Ghumra.
“The social dimension, increasing requirements around governance, legislation, reporting, high levels of transparency, assurance… all this kind of stuff is absolutely at the forefront of what we do now.”
The language has also evolved, with terms like ‘net zero’, ‘circular economy’ and ‘biodegradable’ widespread.
Baxter says: “We would not have been talking about things like the circular economy 25 years ago, but issues around resource efficiency, management of materials and product design, for example, have been around for a long time.”
Another key change has been how environmental and social issues are so important to businesses of all shapes and sizes, with more chief sustainability officers (CSOs) hired globally in 2021 than in the previous five years combined.
“These skills have become a big part of organisations whose services are dependent on natural capital and the environment,” says IEMA Fellow Trevor Hutchings. “CSOs now have a prominent, powerful and important role – it’s a compliance issue as well as a moral issue.
“Environmental issues were considered fairly peripheral and actually often led by scandals, but are now front and centre of most business decision-making.”
Strong air pollution regulations in Europe and North America have seen acid rain go from being a pollution disaster to one of many environmental success stories in recent decades.
The ozone layer is also improving in both area and depth, with projections indicating a return to 1980 values globally by 2040 if current policies continue.
In the UK, despite a recent surge in river pollution, bathing and drinking water quality has improved dramatically since the River Thames was declared “biologically dead” in 1957 by scientists at London’s Natural History Museum.
“Many water courses have got a lot better, and we have also cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared with 1990, so some things have improved,” Baxter says. “So much of the technology that we need to tackle these issues we have and we know how to use.”
However, there is no getting away from the negative environmental impacts caused by humans over the past 25 years.
Global CO2 emissions have soared by more than 45% since the turn of this century, while the 10 warmest years in the 174-year record have all occurred during the past decade.
The rate of global sea-level rise has increased from 0.06 inches per year throughout most of the 20th century to 0.14 inches between 2006 and 2015; air pollution is now linked to one in eight deaths; and nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history while the rate of species extinctions accelerates.
“Global warming from fossil fuels, air pollution, significant biodiversity loss, deforestation, and soil degradation are the most negative environmental impacts I’ve seen,” says IEMA Fellow Arlette Anderson. “Plastic pollution has also risen up the agenda, and it really pains me to see that happening.”
Despite these challenges, sustainability professionals can reflect on many successes over the past quarter of a century, and gain confidence about what is needed as we look to the next 25 years and achieving net zero by 2050.
IEMA has also gone through many changes since its merger with the Institute of Environmental Assessment, the Institute of Environmental Management and the Environmental Auditors Registration Association in 1999, and will continue to evolve going forward.
“I think social justice will be a big undercurrent of what’s going to happen in the next 25 years,” Ghumra says.
“I wish I had joined IEMA sooner and should probably have put more effort into networking and the benefits of our membership.
“We have 22,000 members around the world whom these issues matter to; that’s why people stay, become members and develop their careers, so persevere and don’t lose hope.”
Dr Stephanie Hime – also an IEMA Fellow – believes that integrating nature into decision-making is going to be an increasingly important feature. “That means business, government and people really thinking about what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis to help restore and enhance the environment to 2050 and help us meet all our targets.”
In Hutchings’ opinion, continuing to wean the global economy off fossil fuels will be the most pressing challenge over the next 25 years, but he stresses that every job will need to be a green one.
“Sustainability is going to be part of every profession and every job going forward. Whether you’re working in renewable energy, the finance, transport or legal sectors, sustainability is going to cut across all of that, and therefore it’s something you must know about.”
However, the irony of the green transition is not lost on Anderson, who says: “If we do a great job, then we won’t have sustainability professionals in the future because it will just be what we do in business and in life – we need to put ourselves out of a job.”
Whatever the future holds for the profession, amid growing political turmoil and social unrest globally and the unrelenting march of AI, Baxter says that IEMA will continue to support members, adapt and push the changes needed for a sustainable environment, economy and society. “It’s a fantastic profession, doing the right thing, and we need people to develop their skills so they can be more impactful individually and, like our members, really drive change in their organisations,” he continues.
“It’s exciting, because there is so much that can be done, and we’re not asking people to do the impossible. If I weren’t optimistic, I wouldn’t carry on, so don’t lose heart – be part of the solution to the challenges that we face.”
Chris Seekings is the Deputy Editor of IEMA’s Transform magazine, which is published biomonthly for IEMA members. Chris’s role involves writing sustainability-related news, features and interviews, as well as helping to plan and manage the magazine’s other day-to-day activities.
