Trade Associations

Trade associations are great for learning about the current trends and concerns in an industry. The easiest way to find an association is to run a search in your favorite search engine using a variety of keywords and adding association to your search.  

Associations Unlimited logo
Search association Web sites for reports, policies, and press releases on sustainability. Use Associations Unlimited to find information for thousands of membership organizations in all fields including 23,000 U.S. national associations, 20,000 international associations and 115,000 U.S. regional, state, and local associations.

Sample Trade Associations

SGE Publications

There are a number of publications geared towards specific topics in sustainability. Some will be heavily academic while others are more business orientated.

Resources related to environmental sustainability, for example Wind Energy, may be very technical and a scientific background is helpful for understanding them.

Many publications related to social sustainability are produced by governments, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and academia such as the Stanford Social Innovation Review

Articles on corporate governance can be found via Business Source Complete and/or ABI/INFORM.

Conferences & Events

U N E P logoCheck out United Nations Environment Programme's calendar of the upcoming events.

World Energy Outlook

World energy outlook report cover Read the latest edition of the World Energy Outlook Report, the International Energy Agency's authoritative annual global energy projections.

The report analyses what the economic crisis will mean for energy markets and how the transition to a clean global energy system can be financed.

EIU

CEIC

Industry Information

Find industry trends, concerns, and major players via industry and association resources. See our website for additional industry information sources.

Finding an Industry Report

There are several library resources for industry reports. Try IBISWorld or Business Source Complete to get you started on industry reports.  If you are looking for B2B industry report, try Frost & Sullivan If you are searching for tech related industry reports, try Technavio.

Example: Get a report on the advertising industry in China from Business Source Complete:

  1. Access Business Source Complete
  2. Click the link for Thesaurus from the top menubar.
  3. Type Advertising in the search box and click the Browse button.
  4. Check the box next to Advertising and click the Add button. Then click the Search button.
  5. Under Publication Type, check the box next to Industry Profiles.
  6. Click the link for PDF Full Text of Advertising Industry Profile: China to access the Marketline report.

To get a industry report in Capital IQ:

  1. Access Capital IQ via your account or the dedicated computers in the library.
  2. Click the Research tab from the top menubar.
  3. Filter by Report Type from the drop down menu to view just the industry reports