New sustainability association plans to tackle ‘disorganised response’ to EU deregulation

Initiative to coordinate industry practitioners will start in Denmark with potential to expand across Europe

Sustainability experts are launching a new industry body to help respond to the row back on ESG across Europe.

A Danish body called ESG Forum announced it was working with colleagues elsewhere in the country to start an “association for sustainability and ESG professionals”, which could eventually broaden beyond Denmark.

“In 2025, we have witnessed the first wave of EU deregulation via Omnibus, a growing opposition to sustainability, and endless debates about whether sustainability and competitiveness can really coexist,” wrote ESG Forum’s Karim Buus Drif on LinkedIn.

He argued that the sustainability industry was “caught off guard and disorganised in our response” to the Omnibus, adding that more coordination was necessary to address future efforts to cut back sustainability initiatives.

Drif said it was crucial to bring together the “dedicated, persistent, and curious professionals who are stubborn enough to keep pushing even when the world seems to be pushing back”.

The aim of the new association will be to convene those people to strengthen the argument that sustainability is a competitive advantage, and to feed in to public debate and business practice in a more coordinated way.

More information on the initiative will be released in coming weeks, according to the post, which garnered hundreds of reactions on LinkedIn this week.