After 18 months, we are reaching the conclusion of the Future Purpose of IEMA project, which has been exploring whether our purpose and identity is fit for the future of a professional membership organisation with more than 22,000 members across 125 countries.
It has been vitally important that members have been right at the heart of this in-depth, open and inclusive process. What it has demonstrated, is how important our organisation is to members, our profession and the wider sustainability and environmental movement.
Across 26 workshops, interviews, webinars and surveys – which amounted to 6,400 member engagements – members responses have emphasised how much the sustainability and environmental profession has grown in both scope and influence since IEMA’s inception 25 years ago. Shifting from the fringes of the global economy, to be deeply integrated into the day-to-day workings of corporate, governmental and societal life.
Some of the key outcomes of the project include:
- 97% of members surveyed want to retain our purpose as a professional body driving standards across the sustainability and environmental profession.
- In general, members thought:
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- The legacy and reputation, built around our current name (including the term “Institute”), was important.
- That we should champion global sustainability professionals, careers, and green skills.
- We should embrace the broad spectrum of sustainability in the workplace.
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- But only 43% of members felt that the current name and brand fully reflected the organisation’s mission.
