Because we were at the forefront of business-NGO relations during this time, we achieved a great deal of success working with business and industry in various ways. Many corporate fundraising activities bore substantial financial fruit and we came to be regarded as the leading environmental organisation with experience of marketing relationships with companies.

In 1999 WWF-UK set up a task force to reassess the position. It established that the main purpose of our business and industry-related decisions was and is to further the principle of inherent sustainability. In entering a relationship, WWF assesses the long-term impact of a company's activities on the environment and the capacity it has for transforming those into sustainable activities.

WWF-UK's links with commerce reach across the organisation and include:

• engagement in various programmes such as climate change, forestry, toxics, fossil fuel and extractive, and endorsements;
• engagement in WWF's important education programme;
• communications engagement;
• company fundraising through donations, licensing, sponsorship and gifts in kind;
• suppliers and agencies;
• trustees and staff;
• WWF-UK investment of reserves;
• NPI/WWF Investment Fund;