Sustainability Framework
Actors Across Layers
Who operates in the sustainability system, and where.
Different actors operate at different layers. Understanding where you sit, who else operates around you, and how different players interact is the first step to effective strategy.
End Demand
The 8 billion people whose consumption drives the entire system. End demand (L6) is the pull force — distinct from institutional demand (L3–L5). Consumer advocacy organisations represent their interests across markets and policy.
CONSUMER & CITIZEN
End users of the system
Consumers are the pull force that drives the entire system. Their aggregate demand for food, energy, housing, products, and services shapes corporate strategy, landscape use, and planetary outcomes. The intention-action gap — 94% support sustainability but behaviour lags — is one of the largest unresolved challenges.
Examples: 8 billion people making daily choices across food, energy, products, finance, and digital services
Key challenges:
- •Price premium on sustainable alternatives
- •Information overload and greenwashing eroding trust
- •Infrastructure gaps limiting access to sustainable options
- •Habit and convenience barriers to behaviour change
What would it take for the sustainable option to be the easy option?
CONSUMER ADVOCACY
Representing consumer interests
Consumer advocacy organisations operate across L4–L6, representing consumer interests in markets, governance, and international policy. They bridge consumer protection with sustainable consumption — ensuring that sustainability transitions don’t come at the expense of consumer rights, safety, or access.
Examples: Consumers International, Which?, Consumer Reports, national consumer bodies, digital rights organisations
Key challenges:
- •Balancing consumer protection with sustainability ambition
- •Combating greenwashing and misleading claims at scale
- •Ensuring sustainability doesn’t increase cost of living
- •Representing diverse consumer needs across income levels
Are consumers protected, informed, and empowered to participate in sustainable markets?
Demand Side
Institutional actors that create demand for outcomes and capital. They set targets, allocate funds, and procure credits or services, including institutional funding (e.g., pensions, insurers, endowments).
INVESTOR
Capital providers
Investors deploy capital seeking both financial returns and sustainability outcomes. Institutional funding sits here too (e.g., pensions, insurers, endowments), alongside asset owners and allocators. They operate primarily at L4-L5, responding to governance frameworks and influencing corporate action through investment decisions, engagement, and stewardship.
Examples: DFIs, impact funds, ESG funds, commercial banks, family offices
Key challenges:
- •Balancing fiduciary duty with impact objectives
- •Data quality and comparability across portfolios
- •Greenwashing risk and credibility
- •Measuring real-world outcomes vs. portfolio metrics
Where is your capital creating impact?
CORPORATE
Demand-side actors
Corporates sit at the heart of sustainability action. They set targets, develop transition plans, manage supply chains, and report to stakeholders. Their decisions ripple down through value chains to landscapes.
Examples: Brands, retailers, manufacturers, service companies, shipping lines, logistics operators, transport firms, miners & commodity producers
Key challenges:
- •Navigating competing frameworks and requirements
- •Building internal capability across functions
- •Supply chain visibility and influence
- •Moving from disclosure to genuine transformation
Do you understand your full exposure?
ASSET OWNER
Long-term capital allocators
Asset owners set mandates, define risk tolerance, and shape markets through allocation and stewardship. Their long horizons make them pivotal for nature and climate transition outcomes.
Examples: Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, large family offices
Key challenges:
- •Balancing long-term risk with short-term performance pressure
- •Data gaps on nature-related exposure
- •Influencing managers through stewardship and voting
- •Regulatory scrutiny and fiduciary duty interpretation
How does your allocation strategy reflect nature and climate risk?
INSURER & REINSURER
Risk pricing & underwriting
Insurers translate physical and transition risks into price signals. Coverage requirements and risk pricing can accelerate resilience and improve corporate risk management.
Examples: Commercial insurers, reinsurers, brokers, catastrophe modelers
Key challenges:
- •Model uncertainty for nature and climate risks
- •Rising loss volatility and exposure aggregation
- •Regulatory capital requirements
- •Aligning underwriting with net-zero and nature goals
How do you price and reduce nature-related risk?
PHILANTHROPY & FOUNDATIONS
Catalytic capital
Philanthropy provides early-stage grants and first-loss capital that de-risk projects and build capacity, helping markets mature before commercial capital arrives.
Examples: Foundations, donor collaboratives, grant-makers, mission funds
Key challenges:
- •Sustaining funding beyond pilots
- •Measuring impact without excessive overhead
- •Coordinating with public and private capital
- •Avoiding dependency on grants
Where can catalytic funding unlock private capital?
PUBLIC GRANT & STATUTORY FUNDING
Government and multilateral funding
Public grants and statutory allocations direct taxpayer and donor-backed capital into research, innovation, and early project development. Statutory funding is a subset of public grants mandated by law or regulation. For guarantees and market de-risking instruments, see Public Finance (Connectors).
Examples: EU Horizon, NORAD, DFID/FCDO, USAID, statutory allocations, national research councils
Key challenges:
- •Short funding cycles vs long-term outcomes
- •Administrative and reporting burden
- •Fragmented programs and eligibility rules
- •Coordination with private capital
How do grant programs unlock impact and crowd in private finance?
Enablers
Actors that build the rules, trust, and capability. They set standards, verify claims, and help others implement.
CONSULTANCY
Commercial advisory
Consultancies help organisations navigate sustainability requirements. They advise on strategy, compliance, reporting, and implementation – translating frameworks into action.
Examples: 3Keel (Landscape Enterprise Networks), ERM, Anthesis, Carbon Trust, Bright Tide, shipping risk consultants, freight hedging advisors
Key challenges:
- •Keeping pace with evolving requirements
- •Moving clients beyond compliance to transformation
- •Demonstrating ROI on sustainability investments
- •Building deep sector expertise
Where do you add most value?
LEGAL & TRANSACTION ADVISORY
Structuring deals & compliance
Legal and transaction advisors design deal structures, contracts, and frameworks that align capital with sustainability outcomes and regulatory requirements.
Examples: Law firms, transaction advisors, investment banks, SPV structuring
Key challenges:
- •Complexity of blended finance structures
- •Evolving disclosure and liability risk
- •Aligning contracts with long-term outcomes
- •Balancing investor protections with project flexibility
How do you structure finance that balances risk, impact, and compliance?
STANDARD SETTER
Defining frameworks
Standard setters define the rules of the game – what counts, how to measure it, what "good" looks like. Their frameworks shape corporate behaviour and market mechanisms.
Examples: Verra, SBTi, SBTN, Gold Standard, GRI, ISSB
Key challenges:
- •Balancing rigour with accessibility
- •Ensuring real-world impact, not just compliance
- •Harmonising with other standards
- •Keeping pace with science and practice
How does your standard connect to outcomes?
CERTIFIER & VERIFIER
Validating claims
Certifiers and verifiers provide independent assurance that claims are credible. They audit, certify, and verify – building trust across the system.
Examples: Soil Association, SGS, Bureau Veritas, audit firms
Key challenges:
- •Scaling verification cost-effectively
- •Maintaining independence and credibility
- •Adapting to new standards and requirements
- •Technology integration (remote sensing, AI)
What trust do you enable?
INDUSTRY BODY (a) — MEMBER PROFESSIONAL BODIES
Practitioner & sector networks
Member professional bodies convene individual practitioners and member organisations within a profession or sector. Membership-funded; primary role is professional development, standards of practice, advocacy, and accreditation.
Examples: ISEP, IEMA, UKSIF, NFU, NGFS, trade associations
Key challenges:
- •Representing diverse member interests
- •Driving ambition vs. lowest common denominator
- •Demonstrating member value
- •Influencing policy effectively
How do you shape sector practice?
INDUSTRY BODY (b) — COALITIONS & MULTI-STAKEHOLDER INITIATIVES
Pre-competitive coordination & collective commitment
Coalitions and multi-stakeholder initiatives convene organisations (typically corporates, sometimes plus investors / NGOs / public bodies) around a shared challenge. Often programme- or grant-funded; primary role is pre-competitive coordination, collective commitment, and sometimes operating delivery platforms or developing standards. Coalitions also appear under Enabling Systems → Coordination — they are coordination infrastructure as well as actor categories. When a coalition is actively developing a standard, it bridges into Standard Setter.
Examples: Broadway Initiative, SME Climate Hub (international), We Mean Business Coalition, Race to Zero, Bankers for Net Zero
Key challenges:
- •Translating shared intent into operational action
- •Sustaining membership engagement
- •Managing the line between advocacy, standards, and delivery
- •Avoiding duplication with neighbouring coalitions
What does this coalition actually move that members couldn’t move alone?
Connectors
Actors that translate outcomes into investable or tradable value and move data and finance between supply and demand.
TECHNOLOGY & DATA
MRV & platforms
Technology and data providers enable measurement, reporting, and verification. They build the infrastructure for evidence-based sustainability – from satellite monitoring to blockchain registries.
Examples: Novata, Sylvera, Pachama, NatCap Research, ENVable, EcoVadis, Cultivo, registry platforms, MRV tech, satellite providers
Key challenges:
- •Interoperability across platforms
- •Ground-truthing remote sensing
- •Data privacy and ownership
- •Business model sustainability
What gaps do you fill in the data chain?
RATINGS & INDEX PROVIDERS
Benchmarks & risk analytics
Ratings and index providers translate disclosures into comparable signals that influence capital allocation, cost of capital, and investor behaviour.
Examples: MSCI, Sustainalytics, S&P, Moody's, FTSE Russell
Key challenges:
- •Methodology transparency and consistency
- •Data gaps and reliance on self-reporting
- •Comparability across sectors and regions
- •Managing issuer and investor expectations
How do you make sustainability data decision-grade?
MARKET INFRASTRUCTURE
Exchanges, registries & clearing
Market infrastructure provides venues, registries, and settlement systems that make sustainable finance tradable, transparent, and scalable.
Examples: Stock exchanges, bond markets, registries, clearing houses
Key challenges:
- •Standardisation across products and markets
- •Interoperability between registries
- •Fraud prevention and market integrity
- •Access and cost for smaller participants
How do you ensure integrity and liquidity?
INTERMEDIARY
Market facilitators
Intermediaries connect producers with buyers, aggregate small-scale supply, develop projects, and facilitate market transactions. They bridge the gap between landscapes and corporate demand.
Examples: Carbon brokers, freight brokers, shipbrokers, FFA brokers, commodity derivatives brokers, aggregators, Organimark, Cultivo, 3Keel LENs
Key challenges:
- •Building trust on both sides
- •Managing quality and integrity
- •Achieving scale while maintaining impact
- •Navigating evolving market rules
How do you connect supply to demand?
PUBLIC FINANCE
Budget owners & development finance
Public finance anchors the system through budgets, subsidies, and policy-aligned investment. It can de-risk projects and mobilise private capital at scale. For grants and statutory allocations, see Public Grant & Statutory Funding (Demand Side).
Examples: Treasuries, ministries of finance, municipal authorities, development banks, sovereign issuers, export credit agencies
Key challenges:
- •Fiscal constraints and political cycles
- •Accountability and outcome tracking
- •Aligning funding with long-term impact
- •Coordination across agencies and jurisdictions
How do public budgets and guarantees unlock private capital?
REGULATOR
Mandatory requirements
Regulators set mandatory requirements, enforce compliance, and shape market conditions through policy. They translate scientific imperatives into legal obligations.
Examples: EU Commission, FCA, Defra, EPA, national governments
Key challenges:
- •Balancing ambition with feasibility
- •Enforcement and compliance monitoring
- •International coordination
- •Keeping pace with science and markets
How do you drive real outcomes?
RESEARCH & ACADEMIA
Knowledge generators
Research and academia generate the evidence base for sustainability. They develop methodologies, track planetary systems, evaluate interventions, and train the next generation of practitioners.
Examples: Universities, UNEP-WCMC, Stockholm Resilience Centre, think tanks
Key challenges:
- •Translating research into practice
- •Funding for applied research
- •Timelines vs. policy/market needs
- •Communicating complexity
How does your research reach practice?
Value Creators
Actors that generate real-world outcomes on the ground, stewarding land, ecosystems, and communities.
NGO
Non-profit advocacy & conservation
NGOs work across planetary foundations, landscapes, and ecosystem services. They advocate, conserve, build capacity, and often bridge gaps between producers, corporates, and governance systems.
Examples: FFI, WWF, Conservation International, local trusts
Key challenges:
- •Sustainable funding models
- •Scaling impact beyond project sites
- •Balancing advocacy with partnership
- •Demonstrating measurable outcomes
How do you translate mission to action?
GUARDIANS, CUSTODIANS & PRODUCERS
Stewards of land, water, resources & traditional knowledge
The foundational actors of sustainability. Indigenous communities protect planetary systems through traditional knowledge. Custodians steward landscapes and heritage. Producers manage land, water, and natural resources – together creating the foundation for all ecosystem services. Often undervalued in current systems.
Examples: Indigenous communities, traditional land managers, farmers, foresters, fishers, cooperatives
Key challenges:
- •Recognition of traditional knowledge and rights
- •Capturing fair value for ecosystem services
- •Meeting certification and traceability requirements
- •Balancing productivity with regeneration
Are you capturing value from all service types?
v3.1 — Multi-Dimensional Positioning
Actors Spanning Multiple Framework Dimensions
The most interesting organisations don't sit cleanly in one actor category. They span the framework's cross-cutting components — Actor Ecosystem, Data Flows, Capital Flows, and Enabling Systems — and the framework's value is making that multi-dimensional fingerprint visible, not forcing each into one box.
Below: seven anchor organisations, used to stress-test the v3.1 lens. Every row has multiple columns lit up. The fingerprint, not the bucket, is what tells you what the organisation actually does.
| Org | Primary Actor | Data Flows | Capital Flows | Enabling Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENVable | Tech & Data (self-led diagnostic) | Light touch (adjacent to Disclosure) | — | Light touch |
| Broadway Initiative | Industry Body (coalition) | Shaping Disclosure standards (SME SDRS) | Bankers for Net Zero touchpoint | Central: Coordination + emerging Standards |
| SME Climate Hub (international) | Industry Body (coalition) | Disclosure (commitment register) | Indirect | Coordination (UN Race to Zero) |
| UK Business Climate Hub | Not an actor; a platform | Hosts MRV + Disclosure tools | — | Delivery vehicle for Broadway |
| Cultivo | Tech & Data + Intermediary | MRV + Impact Evidence | Central: Sources to Recipients in one platform | Applies Verra / Gold Standard methodologies |
| Organimark | Intermediary + Consultancy + Tech | Traceability (value chain mapping) | Trade finance (~$20M/yr) + capital under management (~$10M) | Positions "beyond certification" |
| EcoVadis | Tech & Data + Ratings | Heavy: Disclosure Data (buyer-driven) | Indirect (procurement, finance access) | De facto industry-wide assessment standard |
How to use it: when you encounter a new player — especially a SaaS, platform, or coalition that resists single-category classification — read it across all four dimensions. See also Data Flows, Capital Flows, and Enabling Systems.
How Actors Interact
No actor operates in isolation. Understanding the relationships between actors reveals opportunities for collaboration and influence.
Pandion works as a hybrid partner across finance, revenue mechanisms, and sustainability delivery, translating between actors and helping teams see how the system connects.
Capital Flow
Investors → Corporates → Intermediaries → Producers
Capital flows down through the system, shaped by governance requirements and enabled by intermediaries who aggregate and de-risk.
Data Flow
Producers → Tech/Data → Certifiers → Corporates → Investors
Evidence flows up through the system – from landscape-level MRV through verification to disclosure and reporting.
Standards & Governance
Research → Standard Setters → Regulators → All Actors
Science informs standards, standards inform regulation, regulation shapes behaviour across the system.
Capacity Building
Consultancies + Industry Bodies + NGOs → All Actors
Enablers build capability across the system – training, advising, convening, and supporting implementation.
Material & Circularity Flow
Producers (L1-L3) → Corporates (L5) → Consumers (L6) → Circular Return or Waste
Products flow up from landscapes to consumers. At L6, materials either leave the system as waste (linear) or return through circular pathways – repair, reuse, recycling, composting, sharing economy. Circularity is primarily a system design challenge (L4–L5 policy and corporate design), not a consumer behaviour challenge.
Find Your Position
Understanding where you sit in the system is the first step. The next is building the capability to act effectively.