6 June 2025 - Leading Chief Sustainability Officers convened in Cambridge yesterday to discuss how the private sector can manage current risks and compete and win in markets of the future.
The CSO Forum took place at CISL’s Cambridge headquarters, the Entopia Building and brought together a combined expertise of almost 1,000 years in the sustainability profession. nearly Sixty global sustainability leaders from a variety of sectors including finance, technology, the built environment, healthcare, education and government attended. Among them were a dozen delegates from African nations, bringing diverse perspectives on shared sustainability challenges and opportunities.
Chaired by CISL Executive Director Alice Spencer, the Forum enabled impactful exchanges on how business can operate – and succeed – in the current challenging context.
It began with a fireside chat between CISL CEO, Lindsay Hooper, co-author of Competing in the Age of Disruption and Survival of the Fittest: From ESG to Competitive Sustainability, and CISL Africa Director, Professor Richard Calland, making the case for competitive sustainability and why it is integral to business survival.
Lindsay Hooper highlighted the need to transform markets: “Markets haven’t delivered for what we want them to. There are lots of places where markets have been created and have been effective. We have cleaner air in cleaner cities, for example. We just haven’t delivered transformation at scale. But it won’t happen without two things: vocal support and assertive advocacy for action from the private sector, and social buy-in.”
CISL Senior Associate and former Head of Sustainable Business at Marks & Spencer, Mike Barry, ran a session on redefining value, asking what strategic leap is required for businesses and sectors to change markets towards ones that reward superior sustainability performance. Afternoon ‘clinics’ then explored in more detail the enablers and blockers across themes such as innovation, policy advocacy and marrying short-term performance with long-term protection – with ‘resilience’, ‘data’ and ‘collaboration’ cited repeatedly.
The day was rounded off with a panel session, led by CISL Director of Advisory, Ben Kellard, which drew together insights from Susan Maingi, Coca Cola Africa; Michael Sheren, Kaya Partners and chair of CISL’s Banking Environment Initiative; Rhian Kelly from National Grid; and Arup Group’s Global Director of Sustainable Development, Jo da Silva.
In addition to multi-sectoral CSOs, senior members from CISL’s Corporate Leaders Groups (CLG) in the UK, Europe and Africa were in attendance – ahead of the 20th anniversary celebration in the evening and the publication of Shape or Be Shaped: Activating Business in an Age of Disruption, CISL’s latest report on the business engagement needed to shape future markets. Members from the Centre for Sustainable Finance's Banking Environment Initiative (BEI), who had attended its annual away day at the University of Cambridge's Pitt Building on 4 June, also participated.
Planning for many of CISL's member groups to be visiting Cambridge at the same time allowed for greater collaboration and a rich exchange of views on different approaches to shared challenges.
This year’s forum was framed around CISL’s recent Competing in the Age of Disruption report, which sets out a pathway for the private sector to proactively react to the current geopolitical context, and focused on the key priorities outlined within it to accelerate market-wide transition:
- Shift mindset – from compliance and incrementalism to value, competition and transformation
- Escape the ESG trap – by ending tokenistic, reputational and defensive actions and redirecting effort towards market-wide impact
- Prepare for transformation and competition – by embedding strategic foresight, leadership alignment and board-level ownership of transition
- Innovate to create and protect value – by scaling disruptive technologies, shaping demand and triggering tipping points
- Change the rules of the game – through strategic policy advocacy that dismantles barriers and builds fair, future-fit markets
- Build momentum for change – by mobilising industry coalitions, aligning lobbying with long-term value and winning the public debate.