At CISL, we’re committed to building a greener future for everyone

Concerns about the environment have become one of the defining issues of our times, writes Eliot Whittington, chief system change officer at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Featured in headlines, helping forge new laws and government strategies, setting the agenda in boardrooms and guiding the activities of major investors – this increased focus reflects a growing awareness of deep-rooted problems facing the world, and acknowledgement of their seriousness. Yet the continued lack of action on climate change, on collapsing natural systems and biodiversity, on the spread of pollution and waste, means we are facing a planetary emergency.

I have worked on climate change one way or another for more than 20 years. First pushing for better policies and understanding of the issues at UK charities including Christian Aid and Save the Children, and now at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), where I work with businesses and financial institutions in order to get us all on track for a safe climate and healthy environment.

At CISL, we work to change the way our economy operates to build a better and greener future for everyone. We do this through a number of activities that work together to make change happen faster. We educate senior staff on the urgency and the opportunity of greening their companies, we bring groups of businesses and financial institutions together to foster new thinking and action and to support stronger government policies, we carry out research on the needs for change and the ways to achieve it.

In our Cambridge offices, we support start-ups and entrepreneurs so new green ideas can fall on fertile ground and get the nurturing needed to make change happen quickly. We also have activities around the world, including offices in Belgium and South Africa and partnerships in many other countries.

We work with these companies and decision-makers not just to help them to change themselves, but most importantly to help them see the need to shift the system they are all part of right now. We are clear that well thought-through regulation is an essential part of the solution.

We can point to a track record of impact – individuals who are trailblazers in climate action and dedication to changing this system, businesses that are setting goals and acting, laws that are more ambitious and new financial systems that raise the bar. Of course, this still leaves us with a potentially devastating threat to our environment and society.

This understanding is core to our work – it’s what gets us up in the morning and it’s what keeps us up at night. It was the need for urgent, substantial commitment that in 2021 lit the fire under our campaign to bring hundreds of business voices together to press the UK government to put net zero emissions by 2050 into law.

The line CISL walks – between business and finance companies, between business and government, between the old and new economies – is not simple and it can be controversial. Recently campaigners have made some of their concerns clear in peaceful protests outside our offices, run by people with a deep concern at the lack of action on the climate and environmental crisis. They were calling for greater urgency and questioning some of the companies we work with, accusing us of greenwashing. We share their concerns at the lack of action and the need for greater urgency. It is right that people question who we work with if those companies don’t appear to be walking the talk on climate and environmental action. Over the past decade, we’ve seen massive shifts in the attitude of businesses on climate change. It’s now common for businesses to set targets and strategies to reduce their environmental impact.

We know this is not enough. And yet, even this progress can’t be taken for granted. In the US, some investors are being challenged by politicians because they are apparently doing too much on these issues rather than too little.

CISL works with businesses that know they need to change and know that they exist in a system that needs to change. We have to make difficult judgments. The economy is complex, change at any level is also complex and developing change that can impact a whole system is a monumental challenge.

There are very few big companies that are beyond criticism somewhere along their activities past or present. That is the reality, and we constantly weigh up a business’s potential for and commitment to change based on what we can see and our scrutiny policies before we agree to working with them and during any project or association. We understand it is much easier to make pledges and commitments than it is to follow through and we take it seriously when a business is shown to be acting in a way that undermines its climate leadership.

CISL knows that not walking the talk on climate and nature action sets us all back, and that greenwash will only slow and hobble the move to the greener economy we’re working so hard to achieve.

We will continue to build on our more than 30 years of work trying to make change happen faster. And we will also continue to welcome and consider the challenges to our model that thoughtful dialogue and peaceful protest bring to our door.