Blogs

10 November 2025 - In today’s era of profound disruption, the strategic landscape for sustainability has shifted irreversibly and businesses face unprecedented complexity and risk. In this blog, Phil Hazell discusses why sustainability must be woven into core business strategy, with leadership embracing disruptive innovation and radical collaborati…

23 October 2025 - Discover five powerful insights from the Sustainable Marketing course at CISL that reshaped how I view marketing’s role in driving systemic change. From purpose-led strategy to citizen-centric storytelling, this journey revealed how marketing can inspire wellbeing for people, business, and planet.When I joined the Sustainable Mark…

23 October 2025 - In an age of disruption, business leaders are navigating converging pressures — climate instability, social inequality, digital transformation, and shifting investor expectations. For many, sustainability has moved from the margins to the centre of strategy, not only as a moral imperative but as a drive of competitiveness and inno…

14 October 2025 - CEO, Lindsay Hooper, discusses what leadership in a major business today truly means and sets out CISL's business leadership agenda to help leaders ‘be part of building something better.’From protest lines to earnings calls, from inaugurations to collapsing governments, from AI mania to shuttering high streets, change is the hallm…

9 October 2025 - Lindsay Hooper, CEO at CISL, writes that today’s crises – from Gaza to AI governance – expose a deeper question: will shared rules and rights endure, or be eroded by raw power? She argues that businesses cannot stay passive, since their long-term interests depend on markets grounded in human rights and the rule of law, and true sus…

9 October 2025- The Conservative leader's pledge to 'get all of our gas out of the North Sea' appears designed more for the politics of opposition than the realities of government, as it crumbles under scrutiny, writes CISL’s Chief Systems Change Officer, Eliot Whittington.The Conservative leader's pledge to 'get all of our gas out of the North Sea…

9 October 2025 - Donald Trump, the godfather of modern ‘anti-globalism’, has injected a dose of toxic precarity into international multilateral and trade relations, including the G20.As the world stares down a vortex of geopolitical instability, the challenge facing South Africa during its presidency of the G20 is not simply one of technical diplom…

8 October 2025 - There is a clear role for companies of all sizes to speak up and share positive stories of how net zero is transforming their businesses, local communities, regions and the wider economy, writes Bev Cornaby, director of the Corporate Leaders Group UK.If you're paying attention, it's getting increasingly hard to ignore the climate c…

8 October 2025 - President Trump is now actively dismantling mechanisms designed to identify and manage systemic financial and climate risks, writes Eliot Whittington, executive director of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).Last week, President Trump stood before the United Nations General Assembly and in a wide ranging s…

7 October 2025 - Executive Director and Chief Innovation Officer at CISL, James Cole, reflects on this year’s Climate Week NYC, where political divisions contrasted with the determination of business leaders, innovators and investors. Amid scepticism from some governments, companies showcased practical, scalable solutions—signalling that the transi…

7 October 2025 - CISL Africa Director Richard Calland explores how do we measure ‘sustainability competence’ if it is not always formalised?The dramatic decision by tourism minister Patricia de Lille to disband the board of SA Tourism has brought the leadership and governance responsibilities of boards into the spotlight.Clearly, being a member of …

In this blog, CISL Fellow Munish Datta explores the evolving role of sustainability professionals amid growing global challenges, highlighting how recent systemic shocks—climate breakdown, resource scarcity, geopolitical tensions, and the politicisation of sustainability—have made the work more complex and urgent. The author argues that sustainabil…

1 October 2025 - Alistair Harwood, Clinical Relations and Education Manager UKI at Align Technology and student on the Master’s in Sustainability Leadership Flexible Route, shares a day of his workshop in Cambridge.  My day begins with… An early alarm that cranks the rusty cogs of my brain into motion. The time we have at Cambridge is precious, so …

1 October 2025 - Camila Castañeda Quintero, Senior Officer – Impact and Sustainability at Finance in Motion and student on the Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Business shares a day in the life of her workshop in Cambridge.  My day begins with…  Going for a run to the Grantchester meadows, enjoying the nice weather and nature around Cambridge. O…

30 September 2025 - Nikhil Dhumma, EMEA Design & Programme Director at JLL and a student on the Master’s in Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment, shares his experience of studying the programme and details what a day looks like during the third of his residential workshops in Cambridge, UK. My day begins with… A video call with my fa…