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.
Sustainability leadership under pressure: The challenge of Gaza
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 sustainability leadership requires defending both environmental and social foundations.
Drilling into decline: The flawed logic of Kemi Badenoch's oil gamble
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.
Middle powers must step up to salvage G20 and the fragile multilateral order
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.
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.
Steering Into the storm: How US deregulation risks global financial crisis
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).
EU goals air at Climate Week NYC - Cambridge's CISL convenes CEOs and EU Commissioner
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 transition to a low-carbon economy is being driven by collaboration, innovation and bold leadership.
The sustainability pivot: Moving from defence to offence
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 sustainability must shift from being a compliance exercise to a strategic driver of value and innovation. First published in Edie , 29 September 2025
A day in the life of a Master’s in Sustainability Leadership Flexible Route
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.
