Become a 4WARD Local Climate Lead
Help build your city's climate and cleantech scene. Connect local changemakers to a global network of 20,000+ professionals across 90 cities and 100+ countries.
What is 4WARD.earth?
4WARD.earth is the world's largest local-to-global climate and sustainability ecosystem platform. 20,000+ members. 90 city hubs. 100+ countries. All bootstrapped, volunteer-led, and built on genuine relationships.
City leads are the backbone of it. They bring the global network to life locally by hosting meetups, building their local chapter, and connecting their city's founders, investors and operators to a network they can actually use.
WHAT DOES A CITY LEAD ACTUALLY DO?
Host one local meetup every 1-2 months. That's the core commitment.
Beyond that, you grow your local WhatsApp group, welcome new members to the platform, and occasionally share posts to keep the group active between events. Most leads spend 3-5 hours a month on it. You set the pace.
WHAT YOU GET
This isn't just a volunteer title. City leads consistently tell us it's one of the highest-leverage things they do for their career and network.
We empower City Leads with:
Global network access: Direct access to 20,000+ climate founders, investors and operators across 90 cities. You're not just a local organiser. You're part of the global team.
Profile and credibility: Build your personal brand as a connector and leader in your city's climate scene. Most leads find their reputation grows fast.
Deal flow and opportunities: Our network includes 1000s of climate investors and founders across every stage. Being a lead puts you close to deal flow, job opportunities and collaborations before they go public.
AI tools and skills: Access to 4WARD's library of custom AI skills for city leads, incl event promo templates, content generation, member outreach scripts, and more to save you hours and sharpen your own work too.
Regional manager support: You're never figuring it out alone. Every city lead has a dedicated regional manager who checks in monthly, helps with event planning and troubleshooting, and connects you with leads in nearby cities.
Full event infrastructure: We set you up with everything: dedicated Luma event calendar, WhatsApp group, Circle platform presence, promo templates, and step-by-step onboarding. You focus on people. We handle the plumbing.
Training and resources: Ongoing access to guides, playbooks and onboarding sessions from the global team. Plus the collective knowledge of ~100 city leads worldwide in our shared leads forum.
A global team behind you: Monthly global city lead calls, a private city leads forum on Circle, and direct access to the 4WARD core team. You're part of something much bigger than your city.
Recognition and visibility: You get a premium City Lead badge on your 4WARD member profile, visible to the entire network which signals credibility.
HOW IT WORKS
1. Apply and tell us why you want to lead in your city
2. Quick conversation with our city events team to check fit
3. Onboarding to get you set up with tools, templates and your first event plan
4. Host your first event, promoted across the 4WARD network
5. Keep growing your local chapter at your own pace, with support throughout
WHO SHOULD APPLY
You're a good fit if you're active in your city's climate, cleantech or sustainability scene (or want to be), you enjoy connecting people, and you can commit to hosting events every couple of months. Prior event experience helps but isn't required. The tools and support are there to make it easy.
WHAT CITY LEADS SAY
Margaret Amein | Frankfurt
UX & Growth Strategist
It works. It has brought me partners, advisors and a good community chasing the same goal.
If you are interested to learn more and in sustainability, please DM me.
A huge congrats to 4WARD for having the tenacity to see the market gap and stick with this."
Kevin Kyer | Geneva
CEO of Pyrpose
Beyond expanding my network and knowledge of sustainability, this role has opened doors to connect with other event organizers across Toronto’s networking scene, which has truly been a highlight.”
Adam Ben-Aron | Toronto
Cofounder of Frame
Each month, I host meetups & climate game nights designed to break the mold of traditional networking. These aren’t just events; they’re collisions of ideas, energy & momentum. It brings me great joy to watch new collaborations take shape over shared commitments to sustainability & climate action.
4WARD's created a space where passion meets practicality & I’m proud to lead that in Vancouver. Being part of this movement reminds me real impact starts with community & that's what we’re building here.
Kriti Gupta | Vancouver
ESG Consultant
Mark Gaitho Nderitu | Nairobi
Project & Events Coordinator
What's truly unique about 4WARD is its energy and openness where early-stage founders, experienced professionals, and purpose-driven investors come together as equals. It empowers local actors while offering global perspective.As someone who believes deeply in the power of community and cross-sector dialogue, being part of 4WARD has reinforced my commitment to bridging local actions with global solutions. It’s an experience that continues to enrich both my personal journey and professional mission."
Paula Berni | Brussels
Climate Activist
WHAT'S REQUIRED
This isn't a passive role. We're looking for people who are genuinely embedded in their city's climate and cleantech scene, or serious about building that presence, and who want to show up consistently for the long haul.
4WARD City Leads are responsible for:
Finding a venue for your meetups (bar, cafe, co-working space, office, etc.)
Hosting at least 6 events per year in your city, ideally more
Publishing each event via your dedicated Luma city calendar
Promoting your event to your local network (we'll amplify it across ours)
Sharing events and updates in your local city WhatsApp group
Welcoming guests and creating a genuine networking atmosphere
Staying active between events with occasional posts to keep your group warm
Recruiting a co-lead when the chapter is ready to grow
We provide the tools, templates, training and support. What we need from you is consistency, genuine passion for the mission, and the commitment to keep showing up.
If that sounds like you, we'd love to have you on the team.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
No. The role is fully volunteer. All tools, resources and platform access are provided at no cost.
Most city leads spend 3-5 hours a month. The core commitment is one local meetup every 1-2 months. Everything else, group posts, welcoming new members, occasional coordination with your regional manager, fits around that. You set the pace.
No. We provide templates, a Luma event calendar, promotional copy, and step-by-step onboarding. Your regional manager helps you plan your first event. Most leads host their first meetup within 4-6 weeks of joining.
Great, that means there's already an audience waiting. We often have cities with an existing WhatsApp group but no active lead. If your city is listed, you'd be taking over something with momentum rather than starting from scratch.
Even better. You'd be the founding lead, building the chapter from the ground up with full support from the team. We've done this 90 times across 100+ countries. The playbook is proven.
Yes, but we make it easy. Most leads start with a bar, cafe or co-working space. We have guides on what works well and leads in other cities who can share what's worked for them. Sponsors occasionally cover venue costs as the chapter grows.
Absolutely, and we encourage it. Sharing the role makes it more sustainable and more fun. You can apply together or recruit a co-lead after you've gotten started.
A dedicated regional manager who checks in monthly, a private global city leads forum on Circle, access to our AI tools and content library, and direct access to the core 4WARD team whenever you need it. You're never figuring it out alone.
Life happens. If you need to pause or hand over the role, just let your regional manager know. We'll work with you on a transition so the chapter keeps going without putting you in a difficult spot.
Just apply and tell us honestly where you're at. We have a quick conversation with every applicant to figure out fit together. There's no pressure and no hard sell.
Words from our founder
"Our mission is to bring together and help align all stakeholder incentives to facilitate collaboration and true climate impact at an unprecedented scale... Because we are all on "Team Planet", and only together, can we face and overcome humanity's greatest challenge."
Together we move the world 4WARD...
Events and networks across the world
The world's climate & cleantech ecosystem is already in YOUR city.
20,000+ founders, investors, operators & experts across 90 cities and 100+ countries. Free access to the global platform, local city hubs, weekly events and AI-powered member matching.Accelerate your career, climate goals and networking with FREE access to world's largest ecosystem for climate & sustainability stakeholders...
Whether you're building a climate startup, deploying capital, or driving sustainability inside a large org - your next co-founder, investor, partner or collaborator is already here.
