Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership

🗣️ “Being aware of all the breadth of the different approaches that could be taken is important to narrow down which one is the best suit.”

Leo Kirby, Managing Director at Principled Investments, shares his experience of CISL’s Sustainable Finance 8-week online short course – and how it helped him bring clarity and confidence to real-world investment strategy and decision-making.

Thank you Leo, for highlighting how the course’s case study approach and systems thinking lens supported you in redesigning strategies and engaging a broad range of stakeholders with greater credibility.

👉 If you’re looking to deepen your understanding of sustainable finance and apply it directly to your work, explore our suite of 8-week online courses.
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👉 Read Leo's full story and explore our suite of 8-week online courses:

Student voices: Sustainable Finance | Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) CISL's students share their experience of the Online Sustainable Finance course which explores the current financial system and learn how to create and protect long-term value in a turbulent world where we are facing growing tensions between short and long-term priorities.

Day 7 was the last day of the ‘Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment’ Master’s workshop our students. Six interdisciplinary student groups presented their practical projects to the review panel, including representation from Historic England. Students explored what they would do with six different buildings from the ‘Heritage at Risk Register’ to bring them back into efficient, resilient, and future-fit use in a viable way- and how those options could be funded.

Thank you to Historic England for supporting the project and for joining us on a Saturday to review and provide feedback to our students

Thanks to Tom Billington and Dr Kayla Friedman for designing this practical project which was gave our students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills and show what could be possible!

Finally thank you to our students for always bring their own insights, expertise and willingness to be challenged!

A reminder that applications close for the SLBE programmes (Postgraduate Certificate and Master’s) on 29th April 2026!

👉 Discover how the programme connects heritage, sustainability and leadership in practice.
https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/idbe/sustainability-leadership-built-environment

Building Better for a Thriving Future: Accredited built environment programmes | Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Formerly IDBE. Two-year part-time Master's course for built environment professionals, from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainabilty Leadership.

Day 6 is the last full content day of the ‘Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment’ Master’s workshop students. The focus for the final day was learning from leading real-world examples of heritage and retrofit projects.

We heard from a selection of speakers working on buildings from 34 years old to 300 years old and the specific challenges they are dealing with.

Friday was also the final day for the students to finish off their practical project presentations which they present on the final day of the workshop.

Thanks to Dr Kayla Friedman, Joey Aoun, James Manning, Basil Demeroutis and Tom Billington for providing in depth knowledge.

👉 Discover how the programme connects heritage, sustainability and leadership in practice.
https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/idbe/sustainability-leadership-built-environment

Building Better for a Thriving Future: Accredited built environment programmes | Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Formerly IDBE. Two-year part-time Master's course for built environment professionals, from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainabilty Leadership.

On Day 5 of our part-time ‘Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment’ Master’s workshop our students explored leadership, professionalism, and interdisciplinary practice in heritage retrofit, as always, the speakers covered a range of topics from initial investing to post occupancy and in situ evaluations.

The students enjoyed an in depth discussion of the retrofit work done here in Cambridge at New Court College.

The cohorts also had the opportunity to continue to develop their leadership skills by focusing on understanding power and influence as well as interrogating project briefs and managing conflicts.

Finally, a treat of an evening lecture considering radical approaches to efficiency in both retrofit and new-build.

Thanks to Dr Louise Drake, Oliver Smith, Peter Fisher, Harriet Browning, Alex Marlow, Oliver Broadbent and Sylvie Sasaki for sharing their in-depth knowledge.

👉 Discover how the programme connects heritage, sustainability and leadership in practice.
https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/idbe/sustainability-leadership-built-environment

We’re pleased to share feedback from a former delegate of our Business and Sustainability Programme (BSP):

“A superior programme to any other sustainability programme I have encountered. High calibre experts, focused on its objectives, with an aggressive balance of theoretical, factual and practical input.”

As we have been highlighting in recent work on what is working now, leaders are under growing pressure to make decisions that shape long-term resilience while continuing to deliver today. The need for confident, evidence-based leadership has never been more urgent.

📍 Applications for the Cambridge seminar in June (14-17) are open.

This seminar is designed for leaders working across business, finance and policy who need to act decisively in a rapidly changing context.

👉 Apply and secure your place now: https://ow.ly/oUa550YMGPv

On the third day of our workshop, our part-time ‘Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment’ Master’s students had in-depth sessions exploring some of the challenges, opportunities, and leading work being done in the heritage and retrofit space, particularly in planning, finance, and building physics. We also had a very grounding session that gave an uncensored view of examples of what can happen to jobs on-site!

Thanks to Dr Tim Forman, David Willock, Cordula Zelider, Tom Billington and Morwenna Slade for providing their in-depth knowledge and answering the hard questions.

👉 Discover how the programme connects heritage, retrofit, sustainability and leadership in practice: https://ow.ly/QYHU50YJTpe

On the second day or our workshop, our part-time ‘Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment’ Master’s students had the opportunity to explore the value of heritage, and what defines heritage across the globe. We also heard from ‘Don’t Waste Buildings’ about their growth and activities as a movement.

Monday was the kick off for practical project where the students are considering 6 projects from the Historic England Risk Register and what could be done to bring them back into efficient use in a viable way.

Finally, a treat of an evening lecture considering how retrofit and re-use is not new- even the ancient Egyptians were doing it!

Thanks to Dr Andy Brown, Killion Mokwete, Richard Nelson, Tom Billington, Tom Marshall and Helen Strudwick for provide in depth knowledge.

👉 Discover how the programme connects heritage, sustainability and leadership in practice.
https://ow.ly/rXRj50YIOMJ

Our part-time ‘Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment’ Master’s students returned to Cambridge from across the globe this week to begin the Heritage Environments week of the programme.

On the first day of the workshop, our students discussed places and spaces of heritage and cultural value of personal significance as they prepared to engage with 20 expert contributors throughout the week. It showed the breadth of experience and perspective among our students, who are all practising professionals in the built environment sector. Students shared examples of under-utilised local assets and considered opportunities for regeneration, before a session on fostering trust in professional practice.

Thanks to Dr Kayla Friedman, Dr Tim Forman and the team for guiding and supporting the start of the week.

👉 Find out more about postgraduate study in Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment at CISL. https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/idbe/sustainability-leadership-built-environment