Blogs

18 January 2024 – Christa Avampato is Founder of Double or Nothing Media and a student on the Master of Studies (MSt) in Sustainability Leadership. Christa shares her experience of the programme and details what an average day looks like during one of her residential workshops in Cambridge, UK.My day begins with… a walk or the gym with some of my f…

15 January 2024 –  In this blog, Pat Dwyer, Founder of the Purpose Business and contributor to CISL’s new online course Governance for a Sustainable Future, guides businesses through the shift required to transform from business-as-usual (B-A-U) to purpose-driven governance, starting with a mindset shift. Pat explores this through the lens of accou…

22 December 2023 – A challenge of complexity and competing priorities.The role of food in our daily lives is not only fundamental to supporting life for a growing population; it is deeply embedded in our diverse culture, social interactions and daily routines. While rising populations and changes in demand trends have added pressure to the sector, …

19 December 2023 - CISL’s Chief Systems Change Officer, Eliot Whittington, examines the COP process, what lessons we can take from this year’s UN Climate Summit in Dubai and why the outcome is always a compromise.After two weeks of debate, record numbers of attendees, and a little bit of drama towards the end, the COP28 UN Climate Summit concluded …

15 December 2023 - Dr Tim Forman, Senior Teaching Associate and Course Director of the Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE) postgraduate courses, discusses the emission reduction challenge for the built environment sector.With undisputed evidence that greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings and infrastructure are a d…

15 December 2023 – Where does a business begin its conversation and work on social justice? While Diversity and Inclusion represent the institutional aspect of social justice, business plays a broader societal role that is more relevant today than ever before.Climate change's very visible and global impact on society is dominating news time and con…

13 December 2023 - Dr Nina Seega, Director of CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance, discusses the role of private finance and risk-sharing mechanisms in addressing loss and damage, and the need for more ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Ever since we started to feel the impacts of climate change—record-breaking heatwaves, floods,…

12 December 2023 - Dr Helen Xiaoqin Ma, an alumna from our Women in Sustainability Innovation accelerator programme, accepted a Purple Plaque Award at the Entopia Building. Purple Plaque awards are an initiative from InnovateUK to address the gender imbalance in the UK's blue plaques by celebrating inspirational women.“Inspiration and innovation ca…

7 December 2023 - Dr Nina Seega, Director of CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance, discusses the declarations already made in Dubai and why all eyes are now on the Global Stocktake wordingIt’s half-time at the COP28 game. The first half surprised with a multitude of declaration announcements, global funding pledges and an agreement on Loss & Damag…

4 December 2023 - Nina Seega, Director of CISL's Centre for Sustainable Finance explains how it's time to pin down financial commitments to support developing countries through turbulent climate change.Governments agreed in 2010 that developed countries would commit $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries better manage the impacts …

28 November 2023 - As we head to COP28, Paul Gilding, Fellow at CISL, reflects on ‘the great disruption’ we are now entering, with its  ‘crisis, chaos and disruption’ on both the global economy and  all of our lives.  This discussion paper explores the implications of the great disruption, painting a terrifying picture of the most likely outcomes, …

27 November 2023 – In this blog, Dr Mario Abela, Course Convenor of the new Governance for a Sustainable Future 8-week online course, describes the challenges businesses face in today's sustainability crisis, the imperative to act, and how governance can be the engine of change.Rewind two millennia; Aristotle suggested money had no ‘value’ unless i…

30 October 2023 - CISL Director of Leadership & Culture, Gillian Secrett explains how boards play a key role in transforming organisations to align with a sustainable future. As the main body of governance, responsible for direction, oversight and accountability of an organisation, boards play a pivotal role in transforming organisations to align t…

25 October 2023 - Ben Kellard, CISL's Director of Business Strategy, discusses the issues that businesses face when trying to become more sustainable and introduces the Business Transformation Framework.Why should business care about sustainability issues? This is the question explored in a recent CISL blog, ‘The business case for sustainability’. …

04 October 2023 – The 2020s are the decade we have to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are known as the greatest challenge of our time. They represent a global shared agenda and consensus between 193 countries. This is a defining moment in time for business, representing a potential $12 trillion opportunity and 30 million jobs…