16 March 2026 - The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) today announced a new collaboration with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability to help develop leaders for a fast-changing global economy, launching with a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Forum.
“The CSO role is changing fast moving from reporting and risk to shaping strategy, resilience and value creation. Through the CSO Forum, we’re convening leaders to share what works, confront what’s hard, and accelerate action at the scale this moment demands.” Alice Spencer, Executive Director for Education, CISL
With rising geopolitical uncertainty, escalating climate and nature risks, and rapid advances in AI and other technologies, organisations need leaders who can act across borders, sectors and disciplines.
The CSO Forum taking place at Stanford in April and in Cambridge in June, will convene senior executives for peer-to-peer discussions on how the role is evolving from reporting and risk management to shaping strategy, resilience and long-term value. The forum will focus on turning ambition into action, building organisational capability and engaging the market and policy conditions needed to deliver change at scale.
By bringing together UK and US perspectives, the collaboration supports the next generation of sustainability and business leaders and helps bridge different policy and market contexts, turning insight into practical action.
"We are very excited about this collaboration with CISL. Sustainability represents an enormous and global challenge that no one institution can own. The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability was established specifically to catalyze that kind of collaboration — bringing together influential forces across the globe to impact the future of our planet. The combination of Cambridge and Stanford is a meaningful step in building that global network."Dave Weinstein, Associate Dean, External Education and Mobilization, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
The collaboration marks the start of our broader collaboration with Stanford to generate insight, convene leaders and accelerate sustainable transformation across disciplines.