On Thursday 31 July, environmental liberation group ORCA picketed a “sustainable innovation” project launch run by Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) in collaboration with the Crown Estate. This is part of a wider campaign against CISL’s corporate ties to arms manufacture, mining and fossil fuels, in which ORCA highlight dissonance between CISL’s sustainability-oriented communication and the activities of their corporate partners.
CISL’s insurance partners include AXA, which has over $175 million invested in arms and over $600 million in fossil fuels1, 2. CISL’s partner Coca-Cola has long been accused of land theft, water expropriation and the use of paramilitary violence against Indigenous and local peoples in areas where they work34, 5. Both AXA and Coca-Cola are on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions list for their complicity in the occupation and ongoing genocide in Palestine6. ORCA also highlight extensive links to Anglo American, whose mining operations in Abya Yala (South America) and South Africa involve forced displacement, violent evictions and systemic violations of the principles of free, prior and informed consent7.
CISL also has ties to the arms industry through their Aviation work, which ties them to weapons manufacturers Boeing and Rolls Royce8.
An ORCA member said: “It’s completely hypocritical for CISL to be talking about a ‘sustainable built environment’ while they deal in the profits of displacement, land theft, war and genocide. How is it sustainable to bomb people’s homes, hospitals and schools? To violently evict whole communities from their lands? To pollute and steal the water with no accountability? CISL’s business model depends on the profits from these actions – they should be ashamed”.
ORCA is calling for an end to CISL’s ties with AXA, Coca-Cola and Anglo American, as well as with all companies in the arms and fossil fuel industries. Since the launch of the campaign in March, CISL has removed references to fossil fuel companies including BP and Total from their website, and claim that they no longer work with these oil majors. However, emails between ORCA and CISL demonstrate a refusal from CISL to be transparent on the matter of their education partnerships with oil companies, which have in the past included Petronas and Petroleum Development Oman, among others9.
Notes
- https://boycottbloodyinsurance.org/report-ensuring-genocide/ ↩︎
- https://boycottbloodyinsurance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ensuring-Climate-Crisis-The-Insurance-Industry-and-Fossil-Fuel-Giants-1.pdf ↩︎
- https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/24/marketingandpr.colombia ↩︎
- https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/us-court-orders-coca-cola-company-to-turn-over-evidence-related-to-ongoing-class-action-lawsuit-against-mitr-phol-in-thai-courts-over-allegations-of-forced-eviction/rhg ↩︎
- https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/28/water-is-the-real-thing-but-millions-of-mexicans-are-struggling-without-it ↩︎
- https://bdsmovement.net/sites/default/files/2024-12/Guide%20to%20BDS%20Boycott%20%26%20Pressure%20Corporate%20Priority%20Targeting-30%20Nov%202024-Submitted%20by%20BDS%20movement.pdf ↩︎
- https://londonminingnetwork.org/2025/06/anglo-americans-agm-2025-a-theatre-of-greenwashing-and-denial/ ↩︎
- https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/convening/aviation-impact-accelerator-aia ↩︎
- See our blog post about our discussion with CISL. ↩︎