Once you go sustainable, you never go back. Careers in sustainability may not always be obvious, but once you get involved in the sector, it has its claws in you.
Richard Mason is Positive Business Director at Pentland Brands – who include Speedo, Canterbury, Berghaus, and many more brands under their umbrella – and is a two-times Lancaster University graduate.
Richard talking us through how sustainability threaded through and was inspired by his studies at Lancaster and went on to influence his subsequent professional roles with the likes of AO and Burberry. And as we consider how we each end up in our careers, Jan reveals a boring teenage rebellion that revolved around accounting, Richard reveals how his mum sent him in the right direction.
We find out how sustainability has grown over the last two decades, and how it no longer sits separately from the rest of a company but rather as part of everything.
As we delve into how corporations consider sustainability in their operations, Richard talks about how businesses balance sustainability and innovation with considering consumers – while not being dragged down by unengaging jargon – and the influence of global politics on business operations.
We look at the challenges of brands selling clothes they do not always manufacture in-house, how clothing brands collaborate when it comes to sustainability in their supply chains, the challenges that regulations present to corporations, and how companies can no longer make unfounded green claims.
Plus, can you ski in Belgium? When is a journalist not a journalist? And did we really find some positives about AI?!
Discover more about Pentland Brands: https://pentlandbrands.com/our-brands/
And you can see the six points to check when figuring out if a green claim is genuine, or take part in a quiz on green claims to see if you understand the rules, here: https://greenclaims.campaign.gov.uk/
Transforming Tomorrow
Sustainability is key for any business that wants to build a lasting legacy. From carbon footprints to biodiversity to modern slavery, seabeds to factory floors, everything matters.
On Transforming Tomorrow, we make the complex understandable, the theory practical, as we guide you through the ever-changing and often exciting world of sustainability in business.
Speaking to internationally renowned experts and business leaders, we uncover how to mainstream environmental, social and economic sustainability into purposeful business strategy and performance.
Whether you are leading transition in your business, want to build a corporation with a green heart or change your individual actions, or just want to know more about how space weather might affect your operations, Transforming Tomorrow is the show for you.
Hosts Jan and Paul bring insight, perspective, and not a little amount of disagreement, to all the subjects, helping you find the message among the madness.
Join us every Monday to uncover new insights and become a little more inspired that you can make a difference.
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/
Meet the Hosts
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 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.