20 January 2025 - CISL has released its yearly impact report, looking back on a pivotal year for the institute and the sustainability movement more widely.
2024 was a challenging and pivotal year for CISL and the wider sustainability movement. Action taken across the world is not keeping up with the challenges that are being thrown at it. Greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing, despite renewable energy hitting new heights. The biodiversity crisis continues apace, global temperatures are rising and climate negotiations are not achieving what is needed. ‘Sustainability as usual’ has not worked and has no realistic prospect of doing so.
In a year when CISL appointed Lindsay Hooper as its permanent CEO, the Institute identified that new, more effective approaches are needed for sustainability to succeed.
Highlights of the year included:
- new thinking from CISL on the need to move beyond ESG to a focus on competitiveness and market reform; read Survival of the Fittest: From ESG to Competitive Sustainability
- CISL’s work educating thousands of leaders globally to drive market shifts toward nature positive, net-zero products and business model models
- the multisectoral Global Leadership Summit hosted by CISL in Cambridge and the insights that emerged from it
- convening senior business and finance leaders to raise the bar for leading practice and advocate for ambitious state action in the UK and EU
- extended outreach in Africa through CISL’s reinvigorated Africa strategy
- engagement in international fora including climate, nature and innovation summits – see CISL’s COP16 briefing and COP29 asks
- support for hundreds of sustainability startups globally and a new ground-breaking five-year plan to decarbonise aviation, already influencing government and industry strategies.
Download your report
Find out more
- Learn about our campaign, Business Leadership: changing the story
- Discover why we’re pushing for Restoring Nature: Reimagining Growth
- CISL’s 2024 Competitive Sustainability Index: Shaping a new model of European competitiveness ‘Beyond Draghi’
- Better business: Re-thinking business models for nature positive outcomes
- Investing in Tomorrow: A Guide to Building Climate-Resilient Investment Portfolios
- Learn more about the Corporate Leaders Groups
- Discover the work of CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance
- How we work with business: Activating leadership and action in influential organisations