Special Advisor on Sustainability
Cheryl Hicks
Cheryl believes strongly that to achieve a sustainable future we need to focus on a clear vision of the future we want vs. incremental, low impact changes to the problems we currently have.
To transition to a sustainable economy we need to support and incentivize social, technological and systemic innovation at all levels of business, government, and society —including our own individual lifestyles. This will be the challenge and opportunity of the next decade.
Cheryl Hicks has been a special advisor on sustainability at Collective Invention since January 2010 and is focused on making sustainability easy for people, businesses, governments and markets.
Cheryl is an experienced business and sustainability professional specialized in the areas of Sustainable Consumption & Production (SCP), Sustainable Finance with particular interest in sustainability-driven innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.
In 2010, as a sustainability advisor, Cheryl has worked with governments, UN organizations, multinational corporations and emerging market initiatives at the intersection of sustainability and innovation. From 2004 through 2009, Cheryl worked on business & sustainability issues with The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Cheryl led the WBCSD’s work on sustainable consumption and lifestyles, as well as an initiative, which aimed, to link corporate sustainability reporting and financial materiality via corporate valuations. In 2008-2009 Cheryl was a contributor to the WBCSD’s Vision 2050 project, which provided a business view on a world on track to sustainability by 2050, the pathways of change and, the future agenda for business.
Cheryl has 15 years of cross-sector business experience with 10 of those years working at the intersection of business and sustainable development. Cheryl is Canadian and throughout her career has worked and lived in Australia, Canada, Colombia, South Korea, and is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland. Since moving to Geneva in 2004, Cheryl has co-founded two professional networks: CSR Geneva and Sustainable Finance Geneva. Cheryl is a frequent speaker and writer on the topics of sustainable consumption, sustainable finance and in 2010 delivered a TED talk at TEDx Geneva on: The Power of Networks to Advance Sustainable Development.
