9 June 2025 - During a time of uncertainty and instability for the sustainability sector, CISL held a week-long programme of events - understanding the need to bring together voices from the private sector to propose collective solutions in order to accelerate market-wide transitions.
Corporate Affairs Leadership Programme
Together with Wits School of Governance, CISL Africa has launched a new programme for corporate affairs and sustainability executives in Africa. The first participants in the new Corporate Affairs Leadership Programme (CALP) visited Cambridge this week.
CISL’s CEO, Lindsay Hooper, said: “These leaders operate on the front lines of business, navigating the complex intersection of companies, government, and society in cities like Johannesburg and Nairobi. Yet too often, the strategic importance and influence of their roles is overlooked.
“At CISL we work to build the leadership capacity of those in the private sector with the potential to catalyse change across sectors, regions and financial systems.”
CALP is designed to elevate corporate affairs and sustainability professionals, equipping them to step fully into their potential as influential leaders driving market and regional transitions. Through the partnership of the two institutions, CISL and Wits School of Governance offer CALP as the most complete executive education aimed at corporate affairs in African businesses.
Banking Environment Initiative away day
Members from the Centre for Sustainable Finance's Banking Environment Initiative (BEI) attended its annual away day at the University of Cambridge's Pitt Building on 4 June. Discussions centred around the challenges facing banks in the current geopolitical headwinds, as well as identifying which areas a collective approach, as well as the convening power of the BEI, can harness to lead the change.
CISL’s Annual Chief Sustainability Officer Forum
Corresponding with World Environment Day, CISL held its annual Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Forum on Thursday 5 June at its Cambridge headquarters. The day brought together a combined expertise of almost 1,000 years in the sustainability profession with 60 global sustainability leaders from a variety of sectors including finance, technology, the built environment, healthcare, education and government in attendance.
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.
Corporate Leaders Groups 20th anniversary
In the evening of Thursday 5 June, members of the three Corporate Leaders Groups (CLG) across the UK, Brussels and South Africa, met in Cambridge to celebrate 20 years of policy advocacy, thought leadership and providing business with a strong voice.
Sir David King, head of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group; Dr Tony Juniper CBE, chair of Natural England; CISL CEO, Lindsay Hooper, and CISL Chief Systems Change Officer, Eliot Whittington, spoke to guests at the event at Downing College, part of the University of Cambridge, on the urgency of the challenge we face.
Dr Tony and Sir David delivered impassioned addresses on the need for action, with Tony stating: “The CLG has a two-decade proven track record, but now we all need to up the pace.”
The evening also saw 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, and the week was rounded off with the quarterly CLG working group meeting at the Entopia Building on Friday 6 June.
Eliot's closing remarks at the 20th anniversary celebration highlighted the need for collaboration: “As we’ve seen over the last 20 years, we are capable of more than we think when we unite behind a common cause.”
Planning for many of CISL's member groups to be visiting Cambridge at the same time allowed for greater collaboration to push for collective action, and a rich exchange of views on different approaches to shared challenges. We are at a critical point in history, and the question for businesses is whether they will step up to shape the future – or be shaped by it.