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Partner, Communications Lead, ESG & Value Creation, ERM Shelton: The SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024 Awardee
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"To me, being bold isn’t necessarily about big decisions or actions. It’s about a willingness to look for solutions through a different lens."- Annie Longsworth, Partner, Communications Lead, ESG & Value Creation, ERM Shelton, United States & The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2024 (#SustXGlobal50) Awardee
Annie Longsworth is an industry pioneer, reshaping the role of communication in corporate sustainability for over 15 years. As a Partner at ERM Shelton, she spearheads the global brand, marketing, and communications strategy for the value creation team, ensuring that sustainability is not just a corporate responsibility but a key pillar of business growth. Her innovative approach blends storytelling with strategy, using communications as a powerful tool to inspire and engage diverse audiences to take meaningful action toward sustainability.
Annie’s journey in sustainability communications began long before it was a recognized field. Prior to joining ERM in 2024, she founded the award-winning Siren Agency, a communications firm dedicated to advancing sustainability-driven branding. Before that, she served as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, where her visionary leadership focused on making sustainability “irresistible,” transforming it from a corporate obligation to a competitive advantage. Her work at Saatchi & Saatchi S established the agency as a leader in the space, using bold, emotive messaging to differentiate the firm and create measurable business impact for clients. Annie's tenure also included nine years as President of Cohn & Wolfe, San Francisco, where she launched and led the firm’s global sustainability practice, further cementing her as a thought leader in sustainability communications.
Throughout her career, Annie has been committed to demonstrating that sustainability communication is not just a complementary aspect of business strategy—it’s central to a company’s leadership and long-term success. She is a strong advocate for using storytelling to transform dry sustainability metrics into compelling narratives that resonate with consumers, investors, and internal stakeholders alike. By helping companies translate complex science into relatable, inspiring stories, she creates brand loyalty and encourages genuine behavior change across industries. Her ability to engage audiences through humor, empathy, and clear messaging has proven critical in advancing sustainability agendas globally.
Annie’s boldness has been instrumental in shaping the industry’s understanding of sustainability communications. Early in her career, she faced challenges and skepticism about the importance of communication in sustainability, but instead of retreating, she took on the challenge to prove that communication is at the heart of successful sustainability initiatives. Her relentless pursuit of innovation has positioned her as a trusted partner to global brands seeking to align their sustainability goals with their communication strategies, ensuring that their messages spark action rather than fear.
A lifetime member of the Sustainable Brands Advisory Board, Annie has also played a key role in WPP’s Global Green Brands study, contributing her expertise to help shape global conversations on sustainability branding. Her visionary leadership continues to make an impact, as she collaborates with brands to embrace a solutions-oriented approach to sustainability, focusing on hope, possibility, and transformative change.
As an advocate for gender equity in sustainability leadership, Annie believes that experienced women in the field have a responsibility to mentor and guide the next generation. She encourages boldness in women entering sustainability, advising them to seek opportunities to take risks, practice bold decision-making, and embrace continuous learning. She also sees the importance of integrating sustainability into education and career services to help younger professionals understand the vast opportunities available in the sustainability sector.
Receiving the Global 50 Women in Sustainability Award™ is a significant milestone for Annie, recognizing her long-standing contributions to sustainability communications and her bold leadership. For Annie, this award underscores the importance of communication as a driver of change in the sustainability landscape and validates the bold, innovative approaches she has championed throughout her career. It represents not only personal achievement but also the critical role of communications in advancing sustainability and creating a better world.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2024
The SustainabilityX® Magazine proudly presents its third edition of the Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ for 2024. This annual recognition celebrates extraordinary female leaders who embrace boldness in their pursuit of groundbreaking sustainability initiatives, reshaping industries, and driving transformative change towards a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future.
This year also marks a broader strategic mission expansion for The SustainabilityX® Magazine, with a stronger focus on aligning with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in addition to the original foundation of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This evolutionary expansion reflects the magazine’s ongoing commitment to advancing women's leadership in sustainability while championing social equity, environmental stewardship, and inclusive growth.
“Empowering women to lead in sustainability is at the heart of our mission,” says Supriya Verma, founder of The SustainabilityX® Magazine and one of Corporate Knights' Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership and one of The Peak's Emerging Leaders. “These trailblazers are breaking barriers and redefining what sustainable leadership looks like—showing that it’s about more than policies and practices, but also about social justice, economic resilience, and a regenerative future.”
Rooted in the magazine's guiding pillars of environmental protection, economic prosperity, social inclusion, and ethical governance, The SustainabilityX® Magazine's Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ showcases women from all sectors, industries, and regions, igniting crucial conversations on the intersection of gender equality and sustainable development.
Amidst global challenges and uncertainties, this year’s awards highlight the critical role of women in steering the world towards a more resilient, equitable future. With a continued digital format, the awards amplify voices across borders, bridging the gap between global sustainability efforts and local impact.
As Verma states, “The future of sustainability hinges on bold, inclusive leadership, and these women exemplify the courage and vision needed to transform our world. The SustainabilityX® Magazine remains steadfast in our mission to celebrate and elevate those who are shaping a future where every voice counts and every effort contributes to a thriving, sustainable world.”
View the full list: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2024
Read the full press release: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Announces 3rd Annual Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ Under the Theme "Embrace Boldness"
About The SustainabilityX® Magazine
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue, and now transforming the environment and economy for a sustainable future through the power of women's leadership. Founded on May 8, 2016, and inspired by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by Canada's Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world's most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability while championing women's leadership in sustainability.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is built upon the four foundational pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship, which emphasizes the importance of improving environmental health; Economic Prosperity, which promotes sustainable economic growth that transcends traditional capitalist models; Social Inclusion, which focuses on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) for BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other marginalized or vulnerable communities; and Just Governance, which highlights responsible leadership, the equal application of the rule of law, and the creation of fair systems for all.
As we expand our mission to align with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), we continue to explore the diverse and interconnected factors that influence sustainability. By recognizing how these elements interact across local, national, and international levels, we aim to accelerate progress toward sustainability goals. In essence, this aligns with The SustainabilityX® Magazine's vision of integrating environmental and economic progress for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future through thoughtful dialogue.
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The SustainabilityX® Magazine is a proud member of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, serves as a cause-based media partner for various events such as WIRED Impact, and officially delivers remarks at international conferences such as UNESCO's annual World Press Freedom Day Conference.
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