CDP Launches Earth-Positive Economics Advisory Board to Leverage CDP Data into Mainstream Economic Principles
London, 22 June 2026: CDP, the world’s environmental disclosure system, has announced the launch of the CDP Earth-Positive Economics Advisory Board, to bring together leading economists, academics and corporate strategists to leverage CDP’s decades of corporate sustainability and resilience data into mainstream economic principles.
Grounded in the principle that environmental health underpins economic prosperity, the Earth-Positive Economics Advisory Board will guide work to utilize the power of CDP’s deep environmental data and insights, to move beyond the correlation of environmental impacts on economic value towards the identification of cause and effect based on proven economic laws.
The Board aims to build on this research and other important bodies of work to provide practical and empirical evidence to corporate decision-makers to help them unlock greater resilience and economic opportunity grounded in environmental insights.
The Board includes:
Professor Naoko Ishii, Director at Center for Global Commons, The University of Tokyo
Michael Sheren, Fellow at the Cambridge University Institute of Sustainable Leadership, Former Bank of England Senior Advisor and G20 Co-Chairman.
Dr Markus Zimmer, Senior Economist, Professor of Sustainable Management at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University.
Dr Ben Caldecott, Founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group and Associate Professor of Sustainable Finance at the University of Oxford.
Markus Müller, Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer Sustainability & Global Head of Chief Investment Office Private Bank at Deutsche Bank.
Professor Peter Tufano, Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.
Board members have been selected for their expertise in economic theory, finance and real-economy application, with a focus on translating sustainability principles into measurable financial outcomes.
Analysis of market capitalization in CDP’s latest Corporate Health Check reveals that in over half of the sectors studied – seven out of 13 – climate leaders show higher or similar market growth compared to those at the lowest performance level, unlocking a total of US$218 billion in environmental opportunities over the last 12 months. The Earth-Positive Economics Advisory Board will build on these insights to surface granular economic relationships to drive deeper insights.
Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP, said “Building resilience and navigating global risks and opportunities require corporates to focus up and down their value chains. In today’s uncertain times a whole of economy approach is needed, while short- and long-term environmental impacts on inputs, prices and trade cannot be ignored. The Earth-positive Economics Advisory Board will tap into the breadth of CDP’s data and insights to unlock clear causation between environmental trends and economic value creation.
“We seek to provide a practical framework to evolve economic principles to incorporate climate and nature datapoints. To do so we need to invite global economic experts to drive bold ideas - I’m excited to be launching this Advisory Board.”
Professor Naoko Ishii, Director at Center for Global Commons, The University of Tokyo, added: "A key barrier to progress is not the lack of data, but the lack of confidence that their actions are paid off or backfiring. Organisations are waiting for clearer signals, more consistent metrics, and assurance that their actions are rewarded. This Advisory Board is an opportunity to help break that stalemate - by identifying the most decision-useful data to accelerate action and by guiding policy interventions. The challenge now is to determine which data truly enables that action, and how it can be embedded into real-world economic and business decisions."
Building on a strong existing foundation of environmental economics, CDP – as the foremost platform for climate and nature data – is identifying how to unlock the evidence needed to show that embedding environmental indicators into the economic system will fuel the economy of tomorrow. This approach offers a more holistic and comprehensive view of risks, dependencies and opportunities – filling critical intelligence gaps across the value chain – influencing business and driving performance.
The Board will hold its first convening at London Climate Action Week 2026 on 25th June, where members will align on priority research areas and test initial hypotheses. Its work will inform an inaugural paper, due in early 2027, outlining pathways to embed sustainability into economic and investment models.
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About CDP
CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s only independent environmental disclosure system. As the founder of environmental reporting, we believe in transparency and the power of data to drive change. Partnering with leaders in enterprise, capital, policy and science, we surface the information needed to enable Earth-positive decisions. We helped more than 22,100 companies and over 1,000 cities, states and regions disclose their environmental impacts in 2025. Financial institutions with more than a quarter of the world’s institutional assets use CDP data to help inform investment and lending decisions. Aligned with the ISSB’s climate standard, IFRS S2, as its foundational baseline, CDP integrates best practice reporting standards and frameworks in one place. Our team is truly global, united by our shared desire to build a world where people, planet and profit are truly balanced.
For more information, please contact:
Samika Meshram-Jasinski (samika.meshram@cdp.net)
George Bush (george.bush@cdp.net)