How Salesforce Supports Green Non-Profits with Agentic AI

Salesforce has unveiled the latest phase of its Agents for Impact programme, introducing a nature-focused accelerator aimed at transforming how mission-driven organisations deploy AI to tackle environmental challenges. The initiative, launched in April 2025, builds on Salesforce’s existing work helping non-profits scale their efforts through agentic AI — a form of autonomous artificial intelligence capable of decision-making, learning and acting independently of human oversight.

The Need for Innovation

According to Sunya Norman, Senior Vice President of Impact at Salesforce, the scale of climate-related challenges demands technological innovation that can match the urgency.

"To fully harness nature’s potential to drive global resilience and restoration efforts, we need innovation that matches the scale and urgency of the challenge," she says.

Agentic AI, she adds, offers "limitless digital labour", making it possible to monitor ecosystems in real time, forecast climate risks and streamline environmental management tasks.

The Agentforce Platform

Central to the programme is Salesforce’s Agentforce platform, which enables non-profits to build and deploy AI tools designed to support operational and mission-related tasks. While AI has become increasingly prominent in commercial and enterprise sectors, non-profits often lack the resources to adopt it effectively.

Salesforce research highlights that 74% of non-profits recognise the value of technology but face significant barriers such as limited staffing and funding. These constraints make the case for AI-driven assistance particularly strong.

"Many mission-driven organisations, like those with the passion to deliver nature-based solutions, lack the capacity and technical resources needed to fully realise their goals," explains Sunya.

Participating Non-Profits

The new cohort of participants in Salesforce’s accelerator programme includes five organisations:

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): Creating a forest certification agent to make FSC certification more accessible.
• Rare: Rolling out a regenerative agriculture coach for smallholder farmers, aiming for a 40% reduction in staff time.
• Fair Trade USA: Building a partner management agent to reduce trade partner decertification by 6%.
• Global Water Center: Launching a WASH alumni agent to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene training.
• Ceres: Developing a partner engagement agent to speed up corporate sustainability commitments by 33%.

Broader Sustainability Efforts

The Agents for Impact initiative is part of a broader sustainability agenda at Salesforce, which includes efforts to address the environmental footprint of AI itself. The company recently partnered with Hugging Face, Cohere, and Carnegie Mellon to launch the AI Energy Score — a benchmarking tool to assess the energy efficiency of AI models.

Salesforce has become the first to disclose the energy use of its proprietary models, signalling a shift toward greater transparency in an industry often criticised for its carbon intensity.

"Transparency like that offered by the AI Energy Score is crucial," says Ariane Thomas, Global Tech Director of Sustainability at L’Oreal Group. "By openly sharing energy consumption data, our companies can collectively implement eco-design practices and minimise the environmental footprint of AI technologies."

Explore More

• Sustainability Magazine
• Sustainability LIVE
• Upcoming Events

Sustainability Magazine is a BizClik brand.