What are sustainability communities?

Communities for people working on sustainability, climate action, and eco-friendly living. Covers everything from large collaborative climate networks with city chapters to Discord communities for permaculture enthusiasts, eco-renovators, and people making sustainable lifestyle changes.

Where do most sustainability communities live?

Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (55% of 33 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

70% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical sustainability community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 103K members and the median is 5K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.

What do these communities usually include?

Forum is the most common (85%). Others that show up often include online/offline events, live chat, and newsletter.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Sustainability topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Sustainability Communities Report: Stats, Platforms,...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 33 sustainability communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: sustainability listings cluster on Independent Platforms, while a few large groups pull member averages up.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated periodically

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Communities: 33
Platforms: 7
Avg members: 103K
Median members: 5K

Where Sustainability Communities Are Hosted

Independent Platforms
18(55%)
Circle
8(24%)
Discord
2(6%)
Mighty Networks
1(3%)
Reddit
1(3%)
LinkedIn
1(3%)
Slack
1(3%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
19(58%)
Private membership
9(27%)
Chat communities
3(9%)
Other platforms
2(6%)

Forum / feed-based is most common (58%), but private membership is also well represented (27%).

Independent Platforms leads with 55%, but Circle also has a meaningful share (24%).

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
0(0%)
Small
20-100 members
1(3%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
3(9%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
6(18%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
2(6%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
5(15%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
0(0%)

16 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (103K vs 5K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Sustainability Differs From Other Categories

Sustainability is less free-to-join, smaller, and more paid or gated, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Sustainability	Hive Index average
Free to join	70%	84%
Median members	5K	25K
Average members	103K	662K
Paid or apply-to-join	30%	16%
Live chat	33%	41%
Discord share	6%	18%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
85%
Online/Offline Events
48%
Live Chat
33%
Newsletter
24%
Paid Community
24%
Pairing
21%
Job Board
18%
Member Perks
15%

Niche Features

Courses
6%
Requires Application
6%

Forum appears on 85% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 26

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Independent Platforms	18	55%	5	19%
Circle	8	24%	4	15%
Discord	2	6%	10	38%
Mighty Networks	1	3%	3	12%
LinkedIn	1	3%	4	15%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Discord gets 38% of clicks but only 6% of listings, so visitors click it more than you'd expect from supply alone.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
10(38%)
Private membership
7(27%)
Forum / feed-based
5(19%)
Other platforms
4(15%)

Most-clicked features

Live Chat
16(62%)
Forum
12(46%)
Online/Offline Events
8(31%)
Newsletter
6(23%)
Member Perks
5(19%)
Job Board
3(12%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Large
16(62%)
Massive
4(15%)
Small
1(4%)

Top-clicked listings

Zero Waste
5(19%)
Sustainable Living Hub
5(19%)
Sustainability Professionals
4(15%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and private membership communities.

Trends

Founded year

Not enough founding-year data to chart yet.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Sustainability. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

Updated periodically

FAQ

: Communities for people working on sustainability, climate action, and eco-friendly living. Covers everything from large collaborative climate networks with city chapters to Discord communities for permaculture enthusiasts, eco-renovators, and people making sustainable lifestyle changes.
: Independent Platforms is the most common platform in this report (55% of 33 listings).
: 70% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 103K members and the median is 5K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (85%). Others that show up often include online/offline events, live chat, and newsletter.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Sustainability topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Keep exploring

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All Sustainability communities

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