Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Blogs

Our blogs offer timely perspectives from CISL experts and our global network, exploring how leaders are responding to market shifts, managing risk and turning insight into action.

289 results

Measuring decent work for better investment decisions: integral for a just transition to net zero

21 September 2022 - Dr Mohsen Gul, Senior Project Manager, Centre for Sustainable Finance reflects on why a just transition to net zero necessitates measuring decent work for better investment decisions.The Just Transition Declaration, agreed upon at UN Climate Conference COP26, recognises the need to ensure that no one is left behind in the transi…
Board Leadership – The Shifting Sands Of Corporate Governance

1 September 2022 - This blog is the second in a series from CISL Fellow, Professor Richard Calland. It builds on the over-arching argument about why boards matter and why boards must lead, by exploring the emerging corporate law and governance terrain. It concludes by laying the gauntlet for directors to start focusing on how they lead and how they…
Getting buy-in for your NbS project

24 August 2022 - CISL’s Dr Gemma Cranston, Director, Business & Nature, Centre for Business Transformation and Adrian Greet, Senior Advisor, Business & Nature, Centre for Business Transformation, explain how Decision-making in a nature positive world can help get the buy-in for your nature-based solutions (NbS) project. GC – With a growing number o…
An SME's journey to decarbonisation: Brilliant Noise

23 August 2022 - Brilliant Noise is a strategic marketing partner for global brands. Combining the strengths of a management consultancy and creative agency, the Brighton-based SME transforms businesses through data-led strategy, planning and purposeful content. Chief Commercial Officer and co-founder Maddy Cooper, shares her personal insights on B…
Systems Thinking – from rhetoric to action

23 August 2022 - Dr Theo Hacking, CISL’s Director for Postgraduate Programmes and Research Strategy, reflects on the need for clarity in the use of systems thinking by sharing some of the common misconceptions that can lead to systems-related terms and concepts being misconstrued or devalued by false expectations.It is now widely accepted that syst…
School's out - learning's in

12 August 2022 - We don’t need a summer makeover, we need a mindset makeover: How existing and aspiring leaders can move from being summer-ready for a short-term break to being impact-ready for long-term change.In Europe, and some other parts of the world, a few more weeks of summer still stretch ahead. These are the so-called halcyon days of ‘scho…
How a Digital Product Passport can enhance a European Circular Economy

12 July 2022 - Bjørn Kjetil Mauritzen, Hydro’s head of sustainability argues how a Digital Products Passport can be a key enabler to scale up circular economy in Europe.Our planetary boundaries mean we must use what we have, use our products for longer and re-use them more often. We welcome the ambitions of the European Union in this area and are d…
Why the end to Australia’s climate wars isn’t enough

27 June 2022 - Henrietta Ardlie, a sustainability consultant at One Brave Step, discusses change in Australia's politics, the energy crisis and the need to focus on the larger picture of sustainability.Early on Sunday morning, 22 May, I jumped in my car and, as I always do, turned on the radio. Within minutes, I found myself crying. Climate change …
The built environment industry needs to undergo radical change to effectively respond to the climate emergency – how should that happen?

CISL's Director and CEO Clare Shine was invited to take part in a recent discussion from the Edge's "Big Issue" webinar series. The webinars focused on materials, the real impact of climate change on human health and culminating in the degree of radical change which the construction/built environment industry must undergo to respond to the climate …
The modern food system – ready for the next revolution.

21 June 2022 - David Farrell, founding partner of Blue North Sustainability and co-lead of CISL's Sustainability Practitioner Programme in South Africa, discusses food, global sustainability and how we approach the challenges of feeding the world.Food systems have undergone multiple revolutions since the dawn of agriculture 12 thousand years ago. E…
The European Commission’s plans to label fossil fuel projects as ‘green’ in the taxonomy might hamper the EU’s clean energy transition

9 June 2022 - Ahead of the European Parliament’s vote on the Taxonomy Delegated Act, Nina Seega, from Centre for Sustainable Finance and Ursula Woodburn from the European Corporate Leaders Group explain why labelling fossil fuel projects as ‘green’ in the EU taxonomy might hamper the clean energy transition.The EU Taxonomy Regulation published in 2…
A living wage increases economic productivity while reducing poverty

26 May 2022 - Anna Barford and Jane Nelson discuss the need for, and benefits of paying living wages and discuss the key findings of their report The case for living wages: How paying living wages improves business performance and tackles poverty.It can be difficult to see a way out of the current cost of living crisis. Prices continue to rise, and…
The Circular Economy Showcase Roundup: “If you want to change the world, you need to throw a better party than those destroying it” - Toast Ale

26 April 2022 - CISL supported the UKRI Circular Economy Hub (CE-Hub) as it hosted its first annual Circular Economy Showcase. CISL’s Emma Fromberg and Jie Zhou review the biggest takeaways from the key speakers, and the wealth of sustainable innovations shared by startups and entrepreneurs.Supported by Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leader…
Why boards must lead - board governance and accountability

26 April 2022 - This blog is the first in a series from CISL Fellow, Professor Richard Calland on Why Boards Must Lead. It explores the core fiduciary responsibility of the board of directors, and how it has changed substantially, before inviting a deeper critical reflection on the fundamental purpose of a business and the implications for board go…
Why methane needs to take centre stage in the climate debate

22 April 2022 - CISL Prince of Wales Fellow, Pablo Salas and CISL Fellow, Paul Gilding, reflect on the urgent need to reduce methane emissions in the next decade to avoid runaway climate change.As Western powers scramble to rework their energy mix and suppliers to form a buffer against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, EU agriculture ministers have bee…

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Blogs

Our blogs offer timely perspectives from CISL experts and our global network, exploring how leaders are responding to market shifts, managing risk and turning insight into action.