This Lab invites participants to develop critical skills around systems thinking, regenerative mindsets, and framing transformative systems change. The Lab explores a variety of different sustainability systems problems, their features, and how to engage with them.
Dates March 10-11 2025. Duration, format and location Two-day professional development residential seminar; Cambridge, UK   apply-now.jpg	Fee The course fee includes accommodation and meals. Discounts may be available for multiple delegates from the same organisation or participants from not-for-profits or developing countries.  Find out more To receive more information and updates on the programme, please: register-your-interest-leadership-labs.png

Sustainability Leadership Labs

The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Labs bring together professionals to test and challenge cutting-edge responses to emerging global problems.  

The Sustainability Leadership Labs offer an opportunity to learn from and network with other senior practitioners from different industries and sectors in an immersive two-day programme. You will hear from thought leaders and expert practitioners, engage with peers through group activities and peer-to-peer coaching, and use journaling to reflect and process different perspectives on leadership as they relate to your context.  Participants leave the course having created a personal leadership plan that they can then put into practice.  

Read more about the Sustainability Leadership Labs, and details about fees and applications.

The challenge/opportunity

Many sustainability challenges prove complex, interconnected and cross-disciplinary. To avoid “pushing the problem around” - solving one problem whilst creating another – or addressing symptoms rather than root issues, professionals need a holistic view on their business activities and interventions. Systems thinking can help organisations and professionals embrace and celebrate the complex nature of sustainability challenges and enable a radically different perspective on the solution space, often leading to surprising areas for impact.  

This Lab will specifically focus on systems thinking through the lens of nature – using insights from ecosystems like a forest.

Systems thinking for sustainability

This Lab invites participants to develop critical skills around systems thinking, regenerative mindsets, and framing transformative systems change. The Lab explores a variety of different sustainability systems problems, their features, and how to engage with them. It addresses questions such as: 

• What is a system, what are its features – how to define it and its boundaries 
• How can we use systems thinking to map and understand different kinds of recurring, deep problems for sustainability? 
• How can a regenerative mindset help to unpack sustainability challenges? 
• How can we use nature to think differently about sustainability solutions? 
• What is the role of business in driving systemic change for sustainability? 
• Who has agency in shaping and creating systems? 

Previous speakers

• Norah Bateson, President, International Bateson Institute 
• Dr Tanja Collavo, Senior Teaching Associate, CISL 
• Liz Corbin, Co-CEO and Founder, Materiom 
• Justin DeKoszmovszky, Founder and Managing Partner, Archipel&Co 
• Joshua Entsminger, Co-founder and Research Director, Net Positive Labs 
• Emma Fromberg, Course Director, CISL 
• Chris Grantham, Founder, Regenovate 
• Adam Lusby, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, University of Exeter Business School 
• Dr Kate Simpson, Director of the Systemcraft Institute (hosted by Wasafiri) & Principal Consultant 
• Dr Niki Wallace, Course Leader, MA Global Collaborative Design Practice, University of the Arts London 
• Ken Webster, Fellow, CISL 

Who should attend?

This Lab will convene a range of individuals who are committed to delivering systems change for sustainability. It will benefit individuals in business who are seeking to enhance their impact in wider society, including those working in management and strategy roles, those working in sustainability/ESG/CSR looking to refine their understanding of holistic and systemic change for sustainability. 

Benefits of attending 

The two-day short course is highly interactive with group discussions, practical exercises, reflection, and insights from thought leaders from business and academia. 

As a participant, you will: 

• Unpack different types of systems and how you might encounter these in the sustainability space. 
• Understand how metaphors can shape how you think about solutions to complex problems. 
• Take the first steps in developing a regenerative mindset. 
• Experiment with strategies that help redesign existing systems and designing new ones. 
• Engage in scenario mapping for systems thinking. 
• Participate in dialogues about industry case studies.
• Learn about how to communicate complex challenges in sustainability in a compelling way. 
• Reflect on your agency in driving systemic change at different scales and time horizons. 

Register your interest in attending this Lab.