Our latest thought leadership and research aims to inform and equip decision makers across business, finance and policy to lay the foundations for a sustainable economy.
Electric avenue: The future of road transport in Europe
November 2017 – This report draws together insights from businesses and industry experts to map the trends toward electrification and automation in the road transport sector. It seeks to make a high-level assessment of the implications and opportunities for European businesses, as well as what policymakers need to do to respond to these trends.
Catalysing Fintech for Sustainability: Lessons from multi-sector innovation
October 2017 – This report presents recommendations on how to design collaboration between multinationals, financial institutions and start-ups in order to better harness fintech to help solve sustainability challenges in the real economy.
Towards a sustainable economy: The commercial imperative for business to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals
September 2017 – The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a global strategy for achieving economic growth that is consistent with the planet’s carrying capacity, society’s basic needs and priorities, and the capabilities and stability of the economy. In this report, leading companies from the newly formed Rewiring the Economy Inquiry Group call for a compelling business narrative and a systemic approach to maximise the chances of delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
European industry in the 21st century: New models for resource productivity
September 2017 – This report is based on interviews with companies that are using circular economy principles to reduce their exposure to risk, and to access new markets. It discusses some of the successful transformations and changes made, obstacles faced, and potential policies for overcoming those obstacles.
July 2017 – Many leading food and beverage sector organisations have demonstrated progress in managing natural capital impacts in their direct operations, including greenhouse gas emissions and waste. Many recognise, however, that the largest impacts occur in their upstream value chains, particularly on farms where raw materials are produced. A key natural capital resource is soil, and managing soil health is one way in which businesses may be able to reduce their negative land use impacts.
Global Definitions of Leadership and Theories of Leadership Development: Literature Review
27 June 2017 – the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has been working with the British Council to help define what good leadership looks like in a global policy and political context and across different locations and cultures. The study, undertaken by CISL, will inform the design of a new British Council programme to support future global leaders in the UK and overseas.
June 2017 – The launch of the Natural Capital Protocol has led businesses to become more aware of their impacts and dependencies upon the natural environment. However, a need has been identified to link to commercial drivers to these impacts and dependencies across businesses. Simple metrics and key performance indicators that relate these two could be a next step to embedding natural capital into business operations and strategies. This working paper sets out the outcomes of a small piece of qualitative research. It explores the use of different metrics for standard business processes by sustainability professionals and their relationship to natural capital measures.
May 2017 – Investors and companies want to demonstrate their positive impacts on natural capital and show they are reversing the trend of natural environment degradation. The challenge is to identify metrics that are relevant for businesses’ decision-making processes, whilst being simple and practical for investors to use. This working paper outlines the concept for such metrics as developed by members of the Natural Capital Impact Group. It explores how the metric can be categorised as impacts upon the quality and quantity of soil, water and biodiversity. The paper explains the simple methodology that can be applied for business to calculate their impacts consistently and comparably, focusing particularly on the biodiversity component of this metric (soil and water components will be described in separate papers).
The City Innovation Platform: A guide to multi-sector collaboration on resilience
May 2017 – This guide looks at the City Innovation Platform (CIP), a two-day workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 2016. The CIP explored how the public and private sectors can collaborate more effectively to deliver sustainable, financeable and insurable infrastructure projects. The workshop involved the active participation from a city network of senior Dar city officials, the insurance industry, asset managers and the private sector.
May 2017 – Opportunities exist for investors and companies to demonstrate positive impacts and show they are reversing the trend of natural capital degradation. This working paper explores the challenges with identifying metrics that are relevant for businesses’ decision-making processes, whilst being simple and practical for investors to use. It is concluded that there is a lack of comprehensive, commonly accepted metrics that can be used by business and investors to consistently demonstrate their impact upon natural capital. CISL are working with a group of investors and multinational companies to explore and develop these metrics in response to this gap. This working paper represents the first output from CISL led research.
