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.
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
- The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
CEO-led, global association of over 200 companies dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development. - The American Clean Power Association
- International Hydropower Association
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
Check out United Nations Environment Programme's calendar of the upcoming events.
World Energy Outlook
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
- Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU)The EIU.com offers a suite of products (EIU Country Profile, EIU Country Data, and EIU Market Forecast and Indicators, and EIU City Data). These resources together offer insight into a country' macroeconomic environment, provide pricing information on more than 160 products and services in 123 cities worldwide, and profile 200 countries.
CEIC
- CEICCEIC Data contains economic, industrial and financial time-series data. Our Global Database offers unprecedented coverage of 221 countries in Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East, Africa and the Americas. EIC also offers 18 macro-economic concepts, and 1,400,000 time series. Data comes from analysts on the ground and the prime national and regional statistical agencies and major industrial data issuing organizations of each country covered. The CEIC Data Manager provides access to the entire CEIC database from within the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet application. Times-series can be directly retrieved from the database and imported into Excel for quick analysis.
Industry Information
Find industry trends, concerns, and major players via industry and association resources. See our website for additional industry information sources.
- Associations UnlimitedAssociations often provide free industry data and white papers that cover important regulatory and market trends. Use this for finding the associations that you should be looking at.
- Fitch Solutions Country Industry ReportsMore than 100 industry and country reports by Fitch Solutions Country Industry Reports are available via ProQuest. Search the Advanced Search screen with Fitch Solutions Country Industry Reports pb("Fitch Solutions Country Industry Reports ") to limit results.
- First Research Industry ReportsFirst Research industry profiles include industry trends, benchmark data, and call prep questions. Access via ProQuest, Mergent Intellect, and CareerBeam.
- Frost & SullivanEmerging technologies in chemicals, materials, healthcare, IT, transportation, defense, and other areas.
- IBISWorldReports on more than 700 industries covering the USA, Canada, China. Includes ratios, cost structure, and related industries.
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.
- IBISWorldprovides industry research reports and profiles for over 700 United States industries as well as a wide range of industries in China. IBISWorld is a great starting point for understanding an industry, including niche and emerging industries.
- Business Source Completeprovides full text for scholarly business journals and other sources, including full text for more than 1,800 peer-reviewed business publications. It also includes industry and country reports from Euromonitor and company and industry reports from Datamonitor.
Example: Get a report on the advertising industry in China from Business Source Complete:
- Access Business Source Complete
- Click the link for Thesaurus from the top menubar.
- Type Advertising in the search box and click the Browse button.
- Check the box next to Advertising and click the Add button. Then click the Search button.
- Under Publication Type, check the box next to Industry Profiles.
- Click the link for PDF Full Text of Advertising Industry Profile: China to access the Marketline report.
- Frost & SullivanIn-depth market research and strategy reports with European and global coverage of the following areas: Aerospace & Defense; Automotive & Transportation; Chemicals, Materials and Food; Electronics & Security; Energy & Power Supplies; Environment & Building Technologies; Healthcare; Industrial Automation & Process Control; Information & Communication Technologies; Measurement & Instrumentation. Covers 1998 to present, updated as new reports are produced.
- TechnavioTechnavio provides market research reports for a variety of global industries, including technology, healthcare, retail, energy, aerospace, consumer goods and automotive. Unlimited report viewing is available, but each Cornell email address is limited to 20 downloads per month.
- Capital IQA unique platform combing detailed information on investment banking, private equity, corporations, investment management, professional services, and brokerage.
To get a industry report in Capital IQ:
- Access Capital IQ via your account or the dedicated computers in the library.
- Click the Research tab from the top menubar.
- Filter by Report Type from the drop down menu to view just the industry reports