How we work

Building Communities

Peer-to-peer engagement and learning is a critical component of increasing awareness and building confident climate leaders on boards.

The Centre supports the first ever climate network for non-executive directors in the UK – Chapter Zero.

The Centre is also the secretariat for the international platform that coordinates across the growing global network of national chapters in collaboration with the World Economic Forum – Climate Governance Initiative.

These networks are the first of their kind globally and provide a unique platform for engagement with non-executive directors to address climate change.

Translating Research

The Centre supports new areas of research particularly relevant for board members with a specific focus on climate law, governance, and organisational change. Our research is carried out directly by postdoctoral researchers, and indirectly via partnerships and collaboration with relevant experts.

The research element of the Centre encourages scholarship in law, regulation and governance but also in other fields such as psychology, marketing, economics, finance and management. Legal studies could include aspects of company law, such as the fiduciary duties of directors and investors; finance and investment law; consumer protection law; competition law; the role of insurers; regulations that govern the financial reports of companies; and other incentive structures for corporate boards. The Centre also enables PhD and post-doctoral researchers interested in climate change to advance their academic objectives by engaging with the Centre.

The Centre acts as an independent and trusted intermediary between Cambridge academia, the corporate and financial communities and government, drawing on a wide range of disciplines alongside climate science and law.  A team of knowledge brokers are experts in research translation and support the process of taking the learning and insight from the academic research and ensuring this is effectively communicated to business leaders and other critical stakeholders.

Transferring Knowledge

The Centre is focused on understanding the levers that may best be used to get the boards of corporate organisations to accelerate action. The emphasis is on the role of law and regulation, of reporting requirements for corporations, and of how the financial sector including banks and investors might be used to exert influence on corporations. We also need a better understanding of the proper balance between the use of “sticks” and “carrots” as levers; and of techniques of persuasion using insights of marketing and psychology.

The University of Cambridge has a wealth of leading academic research that is valuable to leaders making decisions about how to tackle climate change. There is also a wide range of research and thought leadership from other leading institutions around the world. The Centre works to scan these sources for the most critical breakthroughs and translate that information into a format accessible to chairs and non-executive directors. Effective transfer of knowledge enables boards to benefit from the latest insights from complex, rapidly evolving topics, critical for investment decisions and change management planning.

Evidence, data and research insights are then synthesised to produce briefing notes, infographics, and presentation material to enable effective transfer of knowledge.

Our model of excellence for research translation utilises creative high impact solutions for sharing information in the most effective ways.