What Can Businesses do for Biodiversity? artwork
Transforming Tomorrow

What Can Businesses do for Biodiversity?

  • S2E39
  • 42:27
  • July 7th 2025

You might not see climate change on your doorstep every day, but you can see biodiversity loss.

Find out what businesses are doing to address biodiversity concerns, and how they can be helped to improve their actions.

Dr Michael Burgass is from Biodiversify, a consultancy company that uses cutting-edge science to develop biodiversity strategies for some of the world’s largest companies. He has long been interested in how people interact with their environment.

As businesses have become more interested and engaged with biodiversity, Michael is working with companies who are at the heart of some of the planet’s biggest issues. The mainstreaming of biodiversity into company planning means just about all organisations are becoming involved.

We learn about spatial science, physical risk and transition risk, look at action and implementation over discussion and policy, discuss why big companies are listening to external experts when it comes to biodiversity education, the impacts of biodiversity loss on supply chains, and how the Science Based Targets for Nature can help to validate company efforts.

Find out more about Biodiversify here: https://biodiversify.com/

And learn about the Science Based Targets for Nature here: https://sciencebasedtargetsnetwork.org/how-%20it-works/the-first-science-based-targets-for-nature/

Episode Transcript

Transforming Tomorrow

Sustainability is a key consideration for any contemporary business, from biodiversity to modern slavery, seabeds to factory floors. On Transforming Tomorrow, we’ll guide you through the complex, ever-changing and often exciting (yes, really!!) world of sustainability in business. Alongside members of the Pentland Centre, academic experts, and business leaders, we cover the theory and practice of mainstreaming social and environmental sustainability into purposeful business strategy and performance.

Whether you are leading change in your business, or just want to know more about how asteroid mining may influence the future of sustainability, Transforming Tomorrow is the show for you.

Taking you through it all are your hosts, Jan and Paul, who bring insight, perspective, and not a little amount of disagreement, to all the subjects.

Join us every Monday to uncover new insights and become a little more inspired that you can make a difference in sustainability.

You can find transcripts for most episodes at: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/resources-for-education-and-practice/transforming-tomorrow-podcast/transcripts/

Send your questions on any of the issues we discuss in Transforming Tomorrow to [email protected] or fill in our feedback form here: https://forms.office.com/e/7Bw4rDiRDt

Find out more about the Pentland Centre and its work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/

https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_Transforming-Tomorrow/

Meet the Hosts

Jan Bebbington avatar
Jan Bebbington
Co-Host

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.

Jan 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 avatar
Paul Turner
Co-Host

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.

Paul 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.