CSO Futures contributor guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the enterprise sustainability conversation.

At CSO Futures, we believe in the power of community, and we welcome a broad variety of expert voices. We also strive to maintain editorial integrity, independence and excellence. Here are four things we look for in external contributions:

• Unique expertise: Bring depth into your articles by choosing topics you know very well.
• Originality: Share your unique voice or point of view, especially on subject matters that have already been discussed at length – and please do not use ChatGPT or other generative AI tools to write.
• Authority: Back your argument with well-researched facts and data – and quote your sources.
• Relevance: Our audience is made up of senior sustainability professionals; make sure your article speaks to them specifically.

Topic guidelines

A few topics of interest to our readers:

• ESG reporting and compliance
• Governance and change management
• Cross-enterprise collaboration for sustainability execution
• Decarbonisation strategies and technologies
• Circular economy trends
• Nature and biodiversity management
• Sustainability skills and talent
• Climate targets
• Sustainability communication and marketing
• We are open to other suggestions that would be relevant for a professional sustainability audience.

Editorial workflow

Here is how to submit a contribution to CSO Futures:

1. Email us your idea at melodie@csofutures.com: keep it short but include your main arguments and the structure you are considering
2. Our team will consider the topic and let you know if this is a good fit and agree with you on a deadline
3. Once you get the go-ahead, you can start writing: the word count for guest articles is 600-1,000 words, and we encourage you to add links to other CSO Futures articles in your copy
4. Your article draft will be reviewed by our editors and we might get back to you with suggested edits
5. Once finalised, we will publish the article on CSO Futures under your name.

Style guide

CSO Futures uses UK writing (sentence case headlines, -ise instead of -ize, etc.) and generally abides by The Economist Style Guide. 

Numbers zero to ten can be written as a word, with a few exceptions, like in the case of percentages or starting a sentence with a number.

Numbers 10+ should be written in numeral form. If you need to write 100s/1000s, write “hundreds/thousands.”

Percentages should use the % sign.

Write out ‘millions’ and ‘billions’ in copy, but abbreviate to ‘mn/bn’ in headlines.

Use currency signs instead of letters: US$ instead of USD.

Screenshots and images

If you use any images, charts, models or screenshots in the article, you will have gained prior permission from the IP owner and cite and link your sources. If any images, charts, models, photos, illustrations you use are yours, then you grant CSO Futures a license and the right to use them in perpetuity, royalty-free, across any media.

JPEGs and PNGs are acceptable image formats.

Feature images (that go at the top of articles) should be landscape format. If you do not submit an image with your article, we will find one on royalty-free, open-source sites like Unsplash.