Culture is visibly lacking from the Sustainable Development Goals – but why? History, tourism, the arts, and even video games all have a part to play in the sustainability picture, so we need to consider the sector’s importance.
Dr Chiara Donelli, from the University of Venezia, is an expert in cultural sustainability and she is here to keep us informed. She explains why culture does not have a specific SDG assigned to it, how it fits into the big picture, and how it has been involved in sustainability activity for longer that you might think.
Taking Venice as a prime example, we look at sustainable business models for tourism, the problems of over-tourism – and how the industry can be just as destructive as other more obviously damaging sectors – and how a place can lose its very nature and identity through an excess of visitors.
We discuss Venice’s new tourist tax, conservation at Machu Pichu, population displacement in the Dolomites ahead of the Winter Olympics, Lake District honeypots, Morecambe jetties, and much more.
Find out why Paul is speaking Italian – while the Biennale leaves Jan flummoxed; why Venice at one point needed to stimulate tourism; the role of hippies in the sustainability movement; and the arts as advocacy for positive change.
Discover more about Chiara and her work here: https://www.unive.it/data/people/25748316
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
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.