What is normal now was not always so. People used to smoke in bars and offices; junk food used to be advertised during children’s TV programmes; drivers and passengers used to travel in cars without seatbelts – but not now, and for some people it feels it has always been this way.
Professor Carlos Larrinaga, from the University of Burgos, talks us through the process by which new ideas spread and become norms – both with and without regulation in place.
With a focus around Carlos’s expertise on sustainability reporting, we look at how voluntary actions start to feel compulsory; and why it is that entrepreneurial heroes and their efforts to force change can take the focus away from important mundane advances that take place in the background.
We ask why some regulations and laws do not change actions and attitudes; why companies can converge on a new behaviour and turn it into a norm without regulation; and how an understanding of accounting history helps Carlos with his work.
Carlos explains how norms can differ from companies’ core values, how behaviours can change to align with new requirements, and whether some companies only comply with reporting in a symbolic way.
And, as Jan and Carlos try to out-humble each other in an argument over who know more than the other, why does everyone want sausages for their dinner?
Find out more about Carlos and his work here: https://investigacion.ubu.es/investigadores/35281/detalle
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.