Environmental campaigners hold ‘greenwashing’ protest at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) facility on Regent Street was the scene of an action by “environmental defenders” protesting its links to organisations including Anglian Water, Coca Cola, Barclays, Heathrow Airport and Rolls-Royce.
The organisers of today’s (February 9) event, which include Demilitarise Cambridge and Extinction Rebellion (XR), say they “demand greater urgency in the response to the climate and biodiversity emergencies from CISL, Cambridge Zero, Cambridge Centre for Climate Repair, the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University Environmental Scientists, all faculty and students”.
The group stood outside CISL’s headquarters at The Entopia Building with placards, while marking off the entrance to the building with ‘Climate Crime Scene’ tape. Banners proclaiming: ‘CISL: Leading in Greenwashing’ and ‘Cambridge University: Backing Growth, Burning Futures’.
One of the protesters, Zoe Flint, held up a placard, ‘CISL, Clean Up Your Backers’, saying: “It’s a joke that CISL claims to lead on sustainability when it partners with some of the world’s filthiest companies.”
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) is part of the University of Cambridge. It is an institution within the School of Technology established by ordinance of the university’s general board. Founded in 1988 as University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), it became CISL in 2015.
In 2015, it released its ‘Rewiring the Economy’ with a focus on collaboration between business, government and finance institutions “to deliver positive outcomes for people and environment in pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals”.
CISL operates a leadership network of 27,000 senior leaders and practitioners from business, government and civil society who have an impact in every sector and on every continent. It has offices in Cambridge, Brussels and Cape Town, with delivery partners in Beijing, Chile, Melbourne and the UAE.
CISL states on its website: “Each year we work with business, government and finance leaders in over 250 organisations including consumer brands, global banks and national governments, attracting more than 1,200 delegates into our programmes.”
The environmental protesters outside the Entopia Building – who included Prof Tony Booth, a University of Cambridge academic and climate change campaigner; Dr Jason Scott-Warren, University of Cambridge English literature professor and climate activist; and Terry Macalister, author and former Guardian energy editor – cited four grievances, arguing CISL
- “partners with polluters like Anglian Water and Coca Cola, fossil fuel industry funding banks like BNP Paribas, HSBC, Barclays, Heathrow Airport, arms industry supplier – Rolls Royce”. (the arms industry is the focus for Demilitarise Cambridge, which criticises “the University of Cambridge’s complicity in the global arms trade and human rights abuses”, especially in Yemen, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia);
- “fails to recognise that everlasting economic growth as measured by GDP is the enemy of a future for life on Earth”;
- “pushes false solutions – zero carbon flight and the use of biofuels”; and
- “encourages companies to greenwash through false metrics”.
Eliot Whittington, director of policy, CISL said: “The protesters today were rightly making clear their concerns that not enough is being done by major businesses to ensure people and the planet are kept safe from climate change and nature loss.
“CISL works with big and small companies at different stages of their journey to help them understand the urgent need for action, to innovate and change their own practices, and to lead the change to a sustainable economy.”
