Transforming Tomorrow
The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business
Sustainability is a key consideration for any contemporary business, from biodiversity to modern slavery, seabeds to factory floors. Transforming Tomorrow guides you through the complex, ever-changing and often exciting (yes, really!!) world of sustainability in business.
Alongside members of the Pentland Centre, international research experts, and business leaders, we cover the theory and practice of mainstreaming sustainability into purposeful business strategy and performance.
Whether you are leading change in your business, or just want to know more about how space weather, human trafficking or architecture may influence the future of sustainability, Transforming Tomorrow is the show for you.
Taking you through it all, hosts Jan and Paul bring insight, perspective, and more than occasional disagreement to their topics.
Professor Jan Bebbington is the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University. Jan is an expert on accounting, benchmarking (to her co-host’s annoyance), and how business and sustainability intersect. She loves nature and wants to protect it – and hopes she can change the world (ideally for the better). She is also motivated to address inequality wherever it is found and especially to eliminate forced, bonded or child labour. Transforming Tomorrow is one small step on that quest.
Paul Turner is a former sports journalist who now works promoting the research activities in Lancaster University Management School – a poacher turned gamekeeper as his former colleagues would have it. He has always been interested in nature and the natural environment – it comes from growing up in Cumbria – and has been a vocal proponent of the work of the Pentland Centre since joining Lancaster University. He does not like rankings and benchmarking, and is not afraid to say so.
Join us every Monday to uncover new insights and become a little more inspired that you can make a difference in sustainability.
Alongside members of the Pentland Centre, international research experts, and business leaders, we cover the theory and practice of mainstreaming sustainability into purposeful business strategy and performance.
Whether you are leading change in your business, or just want to know more about how space weather, human trafficking or architecture may influence the future of sustainability, Transforming Tomorrow is the show for you.
Taking you through it all, hosts Jan and Paul bring insight, perspective, and more than occasional disagreement to their topics.
Professor Jan Bebbington is the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University. Jan is an expert on accounting, benchmarking (to her co-host’s annoyance), and how business and sustainability intersect. She loves nature and wants to protect it – and hopes she can change the world (ideally for the better). She is also motivated to address inequality wherever it is found and especially to eliminate forced, bonded or child labour. Transforming Tomorrow is one small step on that quest.
Paul Turner is a former sports journalist who now works promoting the research activities in Lancaster University Management School – a poacher turned gamekeeper as his former colleagues would have it. He has always been interested in nature and the natural environment – it comes from growing up in Cumbria – and has been a vocal proponent of the work of the Pentland Centre since joining Lancaster University. He does not like rankings and benchmarking, and is not afraid to say so.
Join us every Monday to uncover new insights and become a little more inspired that you can make a difference in sustainability.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 20, 2024 • 22min
Lake District Farmers
Join us as we start our journey looking at meat farming in the UK’s Lake District. As we explore how sustainable farming can be, we meet the Lake District Farmers (LDF).
Jan and Paul travel to Ulverston – or Oolverston as Jan would have it – to meet LDF’s Phil Scott and find all about the organisation and its work with farmers across Cumbria.
LDF work with a network of around 50 farmers to process and sell high-quality meat. But how does this network benefit the farmers? Why do top chefs want their products? Why are they working with Lancaster University – and how? And what are the challenges facing the Lake District’s fell farmers?
May 13, 2024 • 30min
Explaining the Anthropocene
Professor Henrik Österblom, Director of the Anthropocene Laboratory at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, comes to the podcast with possibly the best job title so far.
Henrik is one of Jan’s favourite super-scientists, and he joins Jan and Paul from Stockholm. But just what does Anthropocene mean, and how does it tie in with sustainability?
How is the world changing due to human activity? How have we affected the behaviour of animals – do frogs really eat lightbulbs? What are the empirics of hope? Are there positive signs that we can tackle the challenges we face? How does art and creativity fit into sustainability science? And just what is Henrik’s favourite seabird (and Jan and Paul’s)?
Find out more about the Anthropocene Lab and its work here: https://www.anthropocenelab.se/
And you can discover the Sounds of Science book Henrik talks about here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780443152672/the-sounds-of-science
May 6, 2024 • 35min
Modern Slavery in the UK
We’ve discussed modern slavery on a global scale before, but now Dr Divya Jyoti joins Jan and Paul to bring the issue closer to home.
Divya’s research has taken her to the factory floor, and to the city of Leicester – where there were once claims of 10,000 people living in modern slavery – and has led her to shine a light on left-behind people, those often-forgotten people in our societies.
What has Divya learned from her work in Leicester? What have been the effects on the city of the allegations and investigations? Have people paid enough attention to the impacts on the communities?
Find out more about Divya’s work on modern slavery in the fashion industry here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/spotlight/modern-slavery/
Apr 29, 2024 • 33min
The Problem of Insecure Work
In 2023, around 6.8 million people in the UK were in severely insecure work – little over a firth of the working population. Work Foundation Director Ben Harrison dials in from London to discuss the issue.
Ben tells Jan and Paul about how the Work Foundation works as it tries to influence policy across the UK. He covers issues of flexible working, how economic changes in recent years have affected working patterns, and the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic.
What are decent and insecure work? How does the Work Foundation’s Insecure Work Index function, and what does it tell us? Are particular groups and parts of the country more affected by insecure work? What responsibilities do employers have towards their employees during times of financial hardship?
Discover more about the Work Foundation’s research and activities on insecure work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-foundation/our-work/insecure-work/
Apr 22, 2024 • 27min
Inspiring Business Sustainability
Dr Joanne Larty joins Jan and Paul to enlighten them on her work with businesses in Cumbria on sharing best sustainability practice.
Through Project INSPIRE, Joanne and her team are speaking to pioneering companies across Cumbria to discover how they are tackling sustainability challenges, how it ties into the history and landscape of the county, and how their practices can be spread.
What issues do business face? How can they move to a new way of operating? And, most importantly to Paul, how do you really pronounce Furness, and why does everyone get it wrong?
Discover more about Joanne’s work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/people/joanne-larty
Read more about Project Inspire here: https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_FiftyFourDegrees_Issue_19/14/
Apr 14, 2024 • 33min
Connecting with Nature
Matt Healey talks Jan and Paul through his journey from an outdoor education professional to becoming a PhD researcher looking at our connections with nature.
The UK has the lowest connection with nature in Europe, and Matt’s work encompasses how we each appreciate nature in our everyday lives, the importance of considering nature from a non-human-centric perspective, the value of nature, and the importance of connecting with nature from a young age.
Plus, find out how connected to nature are Jan and Paul?
Read more of Matt’s work on ‘Taming the Green Monster’ here: https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_FiftyFourDegrees_Issue_17/47/
Apr 10, 2024 • 9min
Lancaster Environment Centre
Professor Alona Armstrong returns to give Jan and Paul a whirlwind tour of the work that takes place across the Lancaster Environment Centre and the Energy Lancaster research centre.
Discover the work of Energy Lancaster here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/energy-lancaster/
And find out about the research taking place in Lancaster Environment Centre here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lec/research/
Apr 8, 2024 • 31min
The Power of Solar
Energy Lancaster Director Professor Alona Armstrong takes Jan and Paul on a wonderful journey into the world of solar power, which continues to outperform predictions for its output and effectiveness.
How many solar parks are there in the UK (clue, it’s not seven or 300)? How can solar parks affect biodiversity? How long do solar plants last? How do floating solar farms work? How many homes can a solar plant power? And did Paul really do the maths to answer that question so quickly in his head?
All these questions and more will be answered – and we discuss if you could wear solar powered clothes?
Discover the work of Energy Lancaster here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/energy-lancaster/
And find out more about Alona’s research here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/energy-lancaster/about-us/people/alona-armstrong
Apr 1, 2024 • 24min
Data and Trust
Pentland Centre Research Associate Lauren Thornton wants to talk to us about trust.
Specifically trust frameworks and trust affordances – explaining how and where people can trust data, and to what extent; why different people will trust different things – and the challenges of building trust with the right audience.
How does this all fit with sustainability data – especially given the uncertainty over how sustainability can be achieved, and that some people will try to twist data for their own means; and what is translucent reporting, and why might it be better than transparency?
Plus, Jan uses the word ‘groovy’ in a totally non-ironic sense.
Discover more about Lauren’s work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/people/lauren-thornton
Mar 25, 2024 • 32min
Don't Be A Greenwasher
Dr Di Wang dials in from Sydney, Australia, to talk to Jan and Paul about his work on sustainability reporting and materiality.
Di talks about his experience of interviewing more than 200 businesses on their understanding of materiality – a concept that underpins reporting and which will be explained in the podcast. He explains why companies take part in greenhushing – and explains why he thinks the practice is only likely to increase. He also introduces us to the concept of brownwashing.
And Paul's brainwashing is complete, as the word ‘benchmarking’ comes into his head unprompted.
Find out more about Di’s work and research interests here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/people/di-wang
And you can see Di’s paper on Sustainability Reporting and Materiality here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4687038
