Kerry Bannigan is on a mission to scale sustainability. In 2018, she founded the Conscious Fashion Campaign to accelerate the United Nations’ then-newly introduced Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The 17 SDGs address issues such as climate change, pollution, gender discrimination, poverty and hunger—and Bannigan’s venture helps show companies exactly how to incorporate them into their existing framework to turn their business into a force for good.

Though initially launched as a year-long pilot, the Conscious Fashion Campaign showed immediate success and became a permanent institution, garnering initial support from hundreds of fashion industry heavyweights including Gap, Stella McCartney, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.

The UN-backed initiative and its partners now collectively represent over $4.7 billion in revenue and 14,700 employees, with Bannigan at the center. Earlier this year, it launched the second phase of its project in the form of an online platform called Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network. A collaboration with the Division for Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DSDG/DESA) and the UN Office for Partnerships, the platform brings together industry stakeholders, governments and NGOs to showcase actions and further advance SDG adoption. The network’s initial main points of focus were the climate crisis and post-pandemic recovery.

Bannigan is also the president of the board at social impact organization PVBLIC Foundation, where she provides strategic advisory for programs like It’s On US, launched by Barack Obama and Joe Biden; G8 Young Summit; SDG Media Summit and Michelle Obama’s Drink Up Campaign.