Submitted by H. Hutton on Thu, 28/06/2018 - 14:16
28 June – Dame Polly Courtice, Director of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership has been recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award from BusinessGreen for her work building a community of sustainability leaders over 30 years.
Dame Polly Courtice DBE, LVO, was Founder Director of the University of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (1989–2021). She is now Emeritus Director and Senior Ambassador, CISL.
Presenting the Award, James Murray, Executive Editor of BusinessGreen, said:
“For three decades Dame Polly Courtice has been at the forefront of the UK's green economy, pioneering new thinking, promoting best practice, and calling on political and business leaders to recognise the critical importance of sustainability.”
The Awards were presented at a gala dinner in London attended by 500 leaders and practitioners from major companies, start-ups and government.
Under Polly’s direction, the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has built a network of over 8,000 leaders and leading practitioners, and now educates over 1,000 executives and works with over 250 companies each year to build transformative high impact leadership to rewire the economy for sustainability.
Accepting the Award, Dame Polly said:
“It is a great honour to receive this award. Over the past 30 years I have been very lucky to work with exceptional and inspiring colleagues at CISL who have helped to build an international community of leaders, supporting their efforts to transform their organisations from within, and helping them to influence the economic system to deliver more just and sustainable outcomes.
“The sustainability movement has become an unstoppable force, and although we know there is much more still to be done, we need to acknowledge just how much progress has been made – particularly by business in engaging with the sustainability agenda. I remain convinced we can address many of the challenges we face through real transformational leadership.”
In 2015 Dame Polly was awarded the Bright Award from Stanford University for her contribution to global sustainability. In 2016 she was made a Dame in the Queen’s birthday honours for services to sustainability leadership and awarded Ethical Corporation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Image: Incisive Media
