A pathway to long‑term prosperity, resilience and competitiveness depends on how markets are shaped. CISL works with leaders in business, policy and finance to influence market and policy conditions and support economic and industrial transition at scale.
Our impact
For more than three decades, CISL has played a vital role in shaping the global business and policy agenda on how economies grow, invest and respond to disruption.
- 40,000+ global alumni leading change in business, finance, and policy.
- 10,000+ leaders engaged annually through executive education, leadership programmes and tailored interventions.
- Engagement with 5,000+ organisations across over 150 countries.
- A proven track record Influencing market standards, regulation and business models to support large-scale economic transition.
“As economies change and new markets take shape, universities have an important role to play in generating new ideas and innovations – and ensuring these are used in ways that are credible, inclusive and guided by evidence. Through CISL, the University of Cambridge is leaning into this role, working with leaders across the private sector to strengthen partnerships, mobilise investment and accelerate innovation that can shape markets and economic systems at scale.”
Professor Deborah Prentice Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge
Our three pathways for delivering impact
Business Leadership
Enabling the private sector to accelerate change within their organisations and across markets to create sustainable, long-term value.
Business Leadership: changing the story
Accelerating Systems Innovation
Building support for new visions of critical sectors such as food, agriculture and the built environment to scale new market-based solutions, address barriers and create incentives for change. Transforming Systems, Sectors and Places.
Accelerating Systems Innovation
Rewiring the Financial System
Empowering the finance sector to drive the transition to a sustainable economy, connecting capital to innovation and contributing to investible transition plans Rewiring Finance.
Support for CISL’s mission helps to expand the reach and scale of our work, enabling:
- Greater access to sustainability leadership education worldwide, including scholarships for emerging leaders.
- Research and innovation that bridge science, policy, and practice.
- Development of solutions and coalitions to advance just transitions in critical industries and regions.
Philanthropic partnerships play an important role in accelerating these efforts, ensuring leadership capable of shaping markets and institutions reaches the sectors, institutions and regions where change is most urgently needed.
Contact CISL
Find out more about how CISL delivers impact in practice through leadership, partnership and market‑shaping action.
CISL’s Annual Review 2024 - 25
Read the review
2025 was the year sustainability stopped sitting comfortably in the world of global goals, models of change, flagship projects, glossy reports and technical frameworks, and moved firmly into contested, competitive and messy spaces of implementation with real costs and real consequences.
Despite this, the underlying direction and progress of economic transition towards sustainability has proven more resilient and positive than many expected.
