Reset Connect 2025: Championing change and building effective partnerships

Championing change: Building effective partnerships between boards and chief sustainability officers

CSOs play a vital role in aligning sustainability with business objectives, navigating regulatory demands, and building cross-functional and external partnerships. Meanwhile, boards bring the governance and strategic oversight needed to embed sustainability at the core. To marry those objectives, CSOs have to be a mentor to the business, liaising with sustainability committees to set the long-term ambition for the organisation, and engaging in ongoing dialogue about progress towards targets.

The narrative has changed. Political headwinds are sharpening the focus of the types of questions being asked at board level, prompting the need for pragmatism and a shift in focus to sustainability driving value in the business and supporting resilience, efficiency and innovation. The relationship between the CSO and the board is critical - ensuring that CSOs get sufficient board time and stressing the importance of bilateral conversations. 

Inspiring board directors to move on sustainability and encouraging them to help focus minds on its importance to the business was at the heart of the Reset Connect panel discussion moderated by our CEO, Vicky Moffatt, with each participant contributing their own experience to the conversation and bringing the issues to life.

Explore the full discussion:

The panellists included: Cressida Curtis (Group Sustainability Director, Wates), Kathy Ryan (Chief Sustainability Officer, M&G Investments) and Rhian Kelly (Chief Sustainability Officer, National Grid).