One Year In. Here's What We Know And What We're Still Figuring Out.
A first anniversary reflection from the Fractional Sustainability Leaders Collective on what Year 1 taught us, what surprised us, and what shaping a new model for sustainability work actually feels like from the inside.
May 26th, 2026
In April 2025, we launched the Fractional Sustainability Leaders (FSL) Collective with a straightforward premise: fractional sustainability leadership is an impactful model for change.
Just over one year in, we've learned that the premise was right. We've also learned that building something new is hard work, but more rewarding than any of us fully anticipated.
This post is our honest reflection as FSL Collective officers to mark that year - not with a highlight reel, but with reflections that genuinely feel true from where we're standing.
First, to recap our mission: the FSL Collective champions fractional sustainability leadership as a strategic, results-driven profession and defines excellence in the field. We strive to be a trusted hub where businesses find sustainability leaders to drive immediate and long-term impact and foster a high-caliber, supportive community for sustainability executives.
What We Got Right
We believed there was both a need and an appetite for this new way of working, and we were right on both counts.
The most fundamental thing we got right was building the community itself. FSL Collective established something that didn't previously exist: a formal, professional home for fractional sustainability leaders, with structure and intent behind it. The very existence of this collective signals that this is an emerging, legitimate way of working. Businesses need more innovative structures that enable access to sustainability expertise, and we're proud to have built one. The ability to 'phone a friend,' sense-check an approach, or work through a challenge with someone who has been there has proven invaluable.
We also established a strong definition on which to ground our work. Early on, we committed to articulating what fractional sustainability leadership actually is, tying it into the broader framework of fractional leadership developed by the Fractional Leadership Alliance, while being specific about what it looks like in the sustainability context. Having a shared definition to build from has given the model credibility with clients, partners, and the profession more broadly.
Beyond the community itself, interest in the model has been real and measurable, through substantial inquiries to join the Collective, a strong and growing LinkedIn following, meaningful website engagement, and substantive conversations with organizations across sectors who are paying attention to what fractional sustainability leadership can do.
What Surprised Us
Most notably, just how novel the idea of ‘fractional’ still is.
This concept isn't widely understood in sustainability circles, and in private equity and many small- to mid-market businesses, where fractional is more relevant, sustainability itself is still an emerging focus. What surprised us was the gap between that unfamiliarity and how quickly the model clicks once it's explained. It tends to be a light-bulb moment — an immediate recognition that the need exists and that fractional leadership is a logical way to meet it.
That points to a harder reality that surfaced: converting awareness into actual FSL roles takes time. Many businesses are familiar with project-based sustainability work and full-time roles, but do not yet realize that an FSL engagement can be the starting point. Educating the market takes repetition, examples, and trust-building. To accelerate conversion from prospect to client, we need more case studies from practicing FSLs and more insight into why small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), mid-market companies, and private equity seek out and benefit from this model.
Underneath all of it, our community itself has exceeded what any of us expected. The willingness of members to show up for each other, share openly, collaborate, and genuinely support both one another and the mission, has been one of the most meaningful parts of year one.
What Was Hard
The most consistent tension of year one has been between what we want to build and what we have the capacity to execute at any given moment.
We've been intentional about staying lean as an organization, directing as much value as possible toward members and toward developing the field itself. But lean comes with real constraints. Like early-stage startups and mission-driven NGOs, we're balancing high ambition and genuine momentum against a long list of priorities and limited time. Every one of us helping run this organization is also running our own fractional practice, so we face the same resource realities we're trying to help our clients navigate.
Reaching the right audiences has been challenging, and continues to be. Our target market includes SMBs, mid-market and PE-backed businesses, and operators who are just beginning to take sustainability seriously. This is a highly distributed market that doesn't congregate in the same places as the broader sustainability profession. It's a similar challenge to the one faced by many independent practitioners: how do you build visibility and relationships beyond your immediate network when that network is largely composed of other sustainability professionals? This challenge also extends to building relationships with associations and organizations whose members would directly benefit from the FSL Collective. We've made progress, but we want to see significantly more.
Where do we go from here and what’s next?
We are in the process of making the mental shift from start-up organization to the next phase of maturity.
This means continuing to be deliberate about where we focus, how we grow, and what we're actually trying to build. We know more companies need access to senior sustainability leadership, and helping enable adoption of the FSL model as part of the private sector’s sustainability transformation is what’s driving our optimism and excitement right now.
This next year we’re focused on expanding awareness beyond the sustainability community and into the parts of the market where we see the most need: the operators and decision-makers who recognize sustainability as a priority or opportunity, but do not see a clear resourcing path. We want to get in front of the CFO weighing whether to hire, the PE fund manager evaluating ESG risk across a portfolio, or the multi-hatted sustainability lead in a mid-market company who is doing this largely alone. That's the audience development challenge we're most focused on in Year 2.
On membership, we're being intentional. We want to bring in additional perspectives, and we see real value in expanding. But we do believe smaller is better as we collaboratively work to extend awareness and build a trusted community that can support one another.
One year in, fractional sustainability leadership is still being defined, and we remain committed to the mission. If nothing else, this year has shown us that alternative ways of integrating sustainability into companies are more critical now than ever before. And we know the most important work is still ahead of us.
Onwards,
Craig, Danielle, and Brian
FSL Collective Officers
