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For membership organisations and industry bodies, sustainability presents an opportunity that goes well beyond simply helping members calculate carbon.
Done well, a joined-up sustainability offer can help members understand what is expected of them, build their capability, measure progress and make better decisions. At the same time, it can give associations another tangible way to attract, retain and engage members, while strengthening their own position as a trusted voice for their sector.
That was the focus of our latest Green Circle Solutions Lunch & Learn, Building an Industry-Wide Carbon Measurement Tool, where we were joined by Annie Buckle, Director of Research and Development at elemental, to share the story behind the development of its industry-wide sustainability tool.
Building an offer around what members actually need
There is no single model for a membership sustainability programme, and organisations do not need to do everything at once.
For some, the starting point may simply be awareness and education, through webinars, guidance, white papers or conference content. Others may be ready to introduce structured training, accreditation, measurement tools, reporting, verification and ongoing support.
The real opportunity comes when these elements begin to work together.
A well-designed member offer can make sustainability easier to understand, easier to act on and, crucially, easier to measure. It can also provide practical support as members face increasing sustainability requirements from customers and through tenders and supply chains.
There is a commercial benefit for the membership organisation too. A relevant sustainability programme can create additional value at renewal, help engage less active members, differentiate an association within its sector and provide another reason for prospective members to join.
From an idea to an industry tool
elemental provides a useful example of what that can look like in practice.
Its team wanted to create a tool capable of assessing sustainability across the complexity of landscape development, while remaining accessible to people without specialist sustainability expertise.
The result brings together six areas: materials management; soils; water and air; people and place; biodiversity; and carbon.
Importantly, elemental did not develop the initiative in isolation. Organisations including the RHS, the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI), the Society of Garden Designers and the Landscape Institute came together to support its development and help make it accessible across the industry.
Annie explained that working with Green Circle helped turn the original concept into something broader than the team had initially envisaged:
“You were able to show us the potential of our product that actually went beyond our own expectations.”
She also highlighted the importance of combining elemental's sector expertise with Green Circle's carbon modelling and tool-development experience, describing the relationship as feeling like “a partnership, not just a transaction.”
More than 200 users in six months
Perhaps the strongest test of any member or industry initiative is whether people actually use it.
Since launching at the end of March 2026, elemental has attracted more than 200 users in its first six months. Interestingly, take-up has not necessarily followed the path the team expected.
Rather than adoption beginning predominantly among smaller garden designers before gradually reaching larger organisations, elemental has already attracted interest from councils, major developers and large-scale landscape projects. Annie puts that partly down to the robustness and flexibility of the platform, which allows it to work for different audiences and applications.
The tool also provides live feedback as users work through it, helping them understand the consequences of different choices rather than simply producing a score at the end. Projects and different design iterations can be compared, making the data useful in conversations with clients and supporting better-informed decisions.
Start, learn and improve
One of Annie's most useful messages for other membership organisations was not to wait until every detail is perfect before getting started.
Her advice was to allow enough time to resolve the seemingly small details, listen carefully to how people actually use the product and retain the flexibility to adapt it in response.
Most importantly: “Don't wait until it's perfect... Get going.”
As Annie explained, elemental's product was not perfect when the team first approached Green Circle, and it is still evolving as users engage with it and new opportunities emerge.
That is perhaps the wider lesson for membership organisations.
You do not necessarily need to start with a sophisticated industry-wide platform. Start with what your members need today, whether that is education, training, measurement or practical support, and build from there.
Because when sustainability becomes a useful member benefit rather than simply another obligation, it has the potential to deliver value for individual organisations, the membership body and the wider sector.