Environmental sustainability is the balancing act of regulating society’s needs with environmental needs. Onalytica’s research shows that over half of the online environmental sustainability influencer debate is now focused on climate solutions, and in the past year this debate has grown by 153%.
Initiatives are being taken to try and help the environment on a global scale, PayPal is introducing a way for their staff to digitally track the environmental impact of their behaviours relating to water, waste, transport and energy, allowing them to see how their contributions compare with those made by colleagues and then rewarding those who have made the biggest impact. TerraCycle’s Loop Store delivers well-known branded products to its customers in reusable containers that they then take back, wash and refill ready to be reused.
The steps being taken globally are certainly heading in the right direction, but we are in no way close to the finish line. A recent article by National Geographic provided a number of key facts, one of which being that about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations every year. The equivalent of five garbage bags full of trash on every foot of coastline around the world. Environmental sustainability will always be a balancing act, but it takes a global effort to make an impact.
MAPPING THE COMMUNITY
For this Top 100 we’ve concentrated on influential experts within the topic of Environmental Sustainability. Using a comprehensive Boolean search query, we analysed over 28 million posts mentioning all the keywords we identified, from 5th June 2018 – 5th June 2019. We then identified the top 100 most influential individuals leading the discussion on social media. Below you can see a network map of the online conversation around Environmental Sustainability. The top influential expert, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is at the centre. This map was created using the Onalytica platform. The ranking analyses a variety of personas from industry experts, to social amplifiers and content creators as well as journalists and politicians so there’s quite a mix of influential experts that have been identified.
TOP 100 INFLUENCERS
We looked at all the individuals engaging on Twitter to bring you a list of the top influential experts discussing Environmental Sustainability. Below is the top 50, if you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the full report by filling the form in below.
| Rank | Twitter Handle | Name | Role | Influencer Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @AOC | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | Political/Government | 100 |
| 2 | @MikeBloomberg | Mike Bloomberg | Political/Government | 61.93 |
| 3 | @GretaThunberg | Greta Thunberg | Activist | 51.2 |
| 4 | @antonioguterres | António Guterres | Political/Government | 47.25 |
| 5 | @SenMarkey | Ed Markey | Political/Government | 39.14 |
| 6 | @drvox | David Roberts | Journalist | 38.48 |
| 7 | @claireperrymp | Claire Perry | Political/Government | 38.17 |
| 8 | @Peters_Glen | Glen Peters | Analyst | 38.1 |
| 9 | @MAC_europa | Miguel Arias Cañete | Political/Government | 37.02 |
| 10 | @BillGates | Bill Gates | Entrepreneur | 36.86 |
| 11 | @SenSanders | Bernie Sanders | Political/Government | 35.97 |
| 12 | @MikeHudema | Mike Hudema | Charity/NGO Professional | 34.69 |
| 13 | @cathmckenna | Catherine McKenna | Political/Government | 32.15 |
| 14 | @algore | Al Gore | Political/Government | 29.31 |
| 15 | @MichaelEMann | Michael E. Mann | Academic | 28.86 |
| 16 | @DrSimEvans | Simon Evans | Journalist | 28.75 |
| 17 | @elonmusk | Elon Musk | Entrepreneur | 28.03 |
| 18 | @billmckibben | Bill McKibben | Author | 27.97 |
| 19 | @GeorgeMonbiot | George Monbiot | Journalist | 27.22 |
| 20 | @JustinTrudeau | Justin Trudeau | Political/Government | 26.76 |
| 21 | @CarolineLucas | Caroline Lucas | Political/Government | 25.82 |
| 22 | @bradplumer | Brad Plumer | Journalist | 25.16 |
| 23 | @ErnestMoniz | Ernest Moniz | Energy Professional | 24.95 |
| 24 | @MLiebreich | Michael Liebreich | Entrepreneur | 24.81 |
| 25 | @KHayhoe | Katharine Hayhoe | Academic | 24.45 |
| 26 | @jyrkikatainen | Jyrki Katainen | Political/Government | 23.44 |
| 27 | @mzjacobson | Mark Z. Jacobson | Academic | 22.97 |
| 28 | @ErikSolheim | Erik Solheim | Political/Government | 22.88 |
| 29 | @KateAronoff | Kate Aronoff | Journalist | 22.63 |
| 30 | @PEspinosaC | Patricia Espinosa C. | Political/Government | 21.7 |
| 31 | @PaulEDawson | Paul Dawson | Comms & Marketing Professional | 21.19 |
| 32 | @SenSchumer | Chuck Schumer | Political/Government | 21.13 |
| 33 | @hausfath | Zeke Hausfather | Analyst | 20.24 |
| 34 | @CFigueres | Christiana Figueres | Political/Government | 20.12 |
| 35 | @GovInslee | Jay Inslee | Political/Government | 20.05 |
| 36 | @ELPinchbeck | Emma Pinchbeck | C-Suite | 19.44 |
| 37 | @Sustainable2050 | Kees van der Leun | Energy Professional | 19.18 |
| 38 | @Mark_Butler_MP | Mark Butler | Political/Government | 19.17 |
| 39 | @IEABirol | Fatih Birol | C-Suite | 18.34 |
| 40 | @JesseJenkins | Jesse Jenkins | Academic | 17.74 |
| 41 | @EricHolthaus | Eric Holthaus | Journalist | 17.27 |
| 42 | @AssaadRazzouk | Assaad Razzouk | Energy Professional | 16.81 |
| 43 | @KevinClimate | Kevin Anderson | Academic | 16.67 |
| 44 | @kdeleon | Kevin de Leόn | Political/Government | 16.31 |
| 45 | @AmyAHarder | Amy Harder | Journalist | 16.18 |
| 46 | @VDombrovskis | Valdis Dombrovskis | Political/Government | 16.02 |
| 47 | @ChiefExecCCC | Chris Stark | C-Suite | 15.67 |
| 48 | @rahmstorf | Stefan Rahmstorf | Academic | 14.89 |
| 49 | @ramez | Ramez Naam | Author | 14.83 |
| 50 | @MassGovernor | Charlie Baker | Political/Government | 14.62 |
Download the Full Report
Disclaimer: As ever with these lists, it must be stressed that the ranking is by no means a definitive measurement of influence, as there is no such thing. The individuals listed here are undoubtedly influential when it comes to driving discussion around Environmental Sustainability. Onalytica’s PageRank based methodology is used to extract influential experts on a particular topic and takes into account the number and quality of contextual references that a user receives – this allows us to identify Topical Authority (reference) – our priority influence metric. We analyzed topical authority via their social engagement on Twitter and how much influential experts were referenced in association with Environmental Sustainability on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Forums, Blogs, News and Tumblr content. These calculations also take into account a user’s resonance (topical engagement) relevance (number of posts on topic, and % relevance – the proportion of their social content on the topic) and reach (number of followers). If you want to learn more, please read our article that outlines How to identify your target influencers.
At Onalytica we love building these lists and want to give back to our loyal readers as much as we can. If you’re interested in other topics (such as Virtual Reality, Digital Health, Digital Marketing) be sure to have a look on our blog or why not propose some topics to us on Twitter? Effective influencer marketing starts with identifying relevant influential experts for your brand. Onalytica’s Discovery platform mines over 200 billion posts a year into a curated database of over 700K global social media influencers, including data from Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn Profile Links + Demographic Data. Our software enables you to identify influencers by topic, demographic or content and includes real-time tracking and measurement reporting to scale your influencer relations.