Transforming TomorroW A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025 The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business
Transforming Tomorrow 4 5 18 Working with Partners Future Trends in Sustainability 12 Waste and the Circular Economy Corporate-Led Environmental Action Reporting (CLEAR) 20 Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) Transforming our Audience Business, Nature and Biodiversity Sustainability Gains Ground in Business Education, Accreditation and Rankings 6 ICE-ARC 13 Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives People and the Ocean 24 Celebrating Sustainability Stories Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures 8 Sustainable Soils and Land Use 14 21 26 Modern Slavery 10 16 23 Taking AIM The Montreal Protocol9 Towards Net Zero Meat Production 15 22 2 Find out more about sustainability research at Lancaster University here: https://youtu.be/RbWSc1e6txA
3 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025 The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business seeks to enable business to understand, act upon, and further sustainability outcomes. The Centre does this by assembling a network that: • attracts and supports colleagues who are motivated to advance the Centre’s vision and enables them to have more substantial outcomes and impacts; • creates points of connection for knowledge to be exchanged between academic and practice contexts so that the best ideas (wherever they come from) are shared, refined and advanced; and • supports innovation and provides inspiration for businesses and scholars to progress sustainability in business faster and with greater confidence. These outcomes are critically dependent upon core funding provided by the Rubin Foundation Charitable Trust, which underpins Centre operations and for which we are very grateful. After ten years of co-investment between the Trust and Lancaster University, the Pentland Centre is in good health, with 138 members spread across 30 operational units supported by three professional services colleagues and a director whose job is to co-ordinate and energise the network. As the Centre has grown, we have arranged its work around thematic areas: the Knowledge and Action Hubs. Knowledge and Action Hubs The Business and Biodiversity Hub is developing the underpinning understanding of business nature/biodiversity impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities, building on longstanding relationships with the Lancaster Environment Centre. This work focuses on business-led nature restoration and the regulatory demands for value-relevant data on nature/biodiversity interactions, often linked to investors and capital markets. Modern Slavery, Justice and Complex Supply Chains is an area where Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) has long had research and practice capability. This Hub has focused on mapping diverse research expertise and meeting potential partners for impact and engagement. As demands for due diligence in supply chains become more pressing for business and regulatory reasons, this Hub will be well placed to contribute to conceptual and practice insights. People and the Ocean is a multi-disciplinary Hub involving colleagues from natural, organisational and political sciences. This Hub has undertaken a mapping exercise to identify and locate ‘blue’ businesses in the Lancashire region in order to better understand who might be partners for research and engagement going forward. A new Hub is planned to start in mid-2025 on Waste and Circular Economy, building on a large research grant (co-led by Pentland Centre members) on Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives. Further waste and circular economy research funding has been obtained and the new Hub’s activities will be synergistic with this work. Underpinning the Hubs is an academic and practice focus on how Transition and Transformation arises. This is a cross-cutting capability where applied research, business development, knowledge transfer partnerships and local business engagement events are organised. While these are specific areas of focus and investment, the Centre will continue to support all its members to pursue work that they find meaningful while also being alert to new areas of collective expertise that can be further supported. Alongside this activity, we are very pleased to have developed a podcast presence (in the form of Transforming Tomorrow) over the last 12-15 months, growing an international audience. We have highlighted where podcasts cover the topics we feature in this publication throughout the pages. I hope you enjoy reading about the development of the Centre’s research and impact profile in the pages that follow. Please get in touch with individual researchers or myself if you wish to discuss how we might work more closely together. Professor Jan Bebbington (Director, Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business) Foreword How to read this report: This report includes a celebration of work undertaken over the past 10 years, as well as current projects. On pages 6-9 we outline Centre work from the first five years. Pages 10-15 showcase founding work on themes that remain part of the Centre’s work: historical and current activities are highlighted together. From page 16 onwards, we focus on Centre members’ current activities. The final section, from page 22, looks at how the Centre interacts with other work in Lancaster University and the Management School.
Transforming Tomorrow 4 Pentland Centre Advisory Board meeting, 20 Sep 2024. L-R: Professor Adrian Friday, Professor Jan Bebbington, Edwin Charnaud, Linden Edgell, Stephen Rubin, Paul Druckman, Richard Spencer, Professor Steve Brammer. Photo: Desna Mackenzie The Pentland Centre is supported by a number of people and institutions. Firstly, Lancaster University co-invests in the success of the Centre by ensuring its Director can focus exclusively on Centre activities. Secondly, other research centres and institutes at Lancaster University are longstanding partners in relevant themes, including: the Centre for Family Business, Energy Lancaster, and The Work Foundation. We also operate under the umbrella of Lancaster University Management School, where many of our members work. Finally, we are supported by an external Advisory Board, chaired by Stephen Rubin, who give their time to guide our work and to share their insights into the future of sustainability in business. We meet with our Board three times a year in virtual formats and in person. Working with Partners
The ecological and social problems that prompted the foundation of the Pentland Centre continue to evolve and intensify. The physical impacts of climate change (floods, fires and disrupted weather patterns) emphasise how critical it is to continue to reduce emissions. In addition, global concerns about the resilience of nature were formalised by the passage of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022, with business engagement around this topic accelerating. Progress toward a more equal society is also essential, with the impacts of Covid and the global cost-of-living crisis creating higher levels of inequality. Finally, concern about novel materials in the environment (most obviously plastics) is becoming the subject of international collaborations. With these aspects in mind, the Centre has undertaken horizon scans with its members and the Advisory Board on where, and how, the sustainability in business agenda is likely to evolve. This has yielded four trends that will shape our current and future work. A focus on business dependencies on nature (including a stable climate system) and the introduction of reporting protocols that support investors to quantify the financial impacts of environmental change. This work is predicated on the ability to develop scenarios of future operating environments to inform business strategy (see page 17). In addition, transition planning is required to ensure corporate strategies/targets will be achieved. Likewise, proposals for legal requirements for nature restoration are being advanced, which raise questions about the impact this may have on business operations, raw material access, and the need for business to restore ecosystems they draw from/operate within (see page 18). The impact of sudden changes (in terms of biodiversity loss or climate change impacts) will also require greater disaster and resilience planning. The further widening of business responsibility for supply chain impacts through due diligence regulations, modern slavery reporting requirements, and import bans for products made with forced labour is a global trend (see pages 10-11). Businesses who are subject to these demands will need better traceability systems and to be transparent about their activities, disclose where problems exist (within the bounds of confidentiality and commercial sensitivities) and disclose how they have remedied problems they have found. The integration of corporate and investor action for sustainability is evolving, with investors, funders and insurers needing to identify how they are enhancing sustainability in business alongside existing corporate action. Translating physical risk to financial risk is a critical element in this setting both for investors and for financial markets. See page 17 for a review of the Centre’s work on the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, a corporate governance device that makes these links. Sustainability in business requires transitions and transformation with the idea of a ‘just transition’, ensuring that the benefits of transitions are shared fairly. A focus on justice also highlights that environmental benefits and burdens are not currently equally distributed, and that marginalised groups and communities are more exposed to burdens and have less access to benefits. Intellectually these issues sit at the intersection of environmental law and political theories. Future Trends in Sustainability in Business 5 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025
Transforming Tomorrow 6 Professor Gail Whiteman became the first Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business in 2015 and brought with her ICE-ARC (Ice, Climate, Economics and the Arctic Research on Change). ICE-ARC was a four-year European-funded project, looking at current and future changes in Arctic sea-ice and its interrelations with changing atmospheric and oceanic conditions, and aiming to gain a better understanding of Arctic marine change and its global consequences. It brought together indigenous people from Northwest Greenland, natural and social scientists from across Europe, and the British Antarctic Survey. The Pentland Centre team led work on the climatic impact of Arctic shipping, climate policy implications of Arctic-related tipping points, and correlations between Arctic sea-ice loss and global agricultural risks. The project successfully improved understanding of: • scientific models of sea-ice and climate models; • the impact of atmospheric pollutants on marine ecosystems and agriculture; • the economic impact of changes to Arctic shipping routes; • and the links between marine ecosystem changes and human movement. Professor Whiteman also had an idea for an innovative science communications platform, Arctic Basecamp. This would recreate a working Arctic science camp from which experts on Arctic change could connect with influential people, to ensure an understanding of the risks and opportunities of Arctic change at the highest level. The ICE-ARC project brought this idea to life. The first Arctic Basecamp took place in Davos in 2017, running alongside the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting. Alongside scientific input, there were speeches from former US Vice President Al Gore and Christiana Figueres (former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). When ICE-ARC ended in Dec 2017, Professor Whiteman continued Arctic Basecamp, establishing it as a Davos fixture. In 2018, the team partnered with Mission 2020, the UN Global Goals and Project Everyone to move to a new site at Berghotel Shatzalp, and delivered a WEF Global Shapers Briefing and a ‘Fireside Chat’ for scientists and business leaders. The event continued to attract support from Christiana Figueres, as well as scientists such as Professors Julienne Stroeve, Johan Rockström and Jennifer Francis, and high-profile artists and entertainers, including Ellie Goulding and Rainn Wilson. In 2019, Basecamp hosted a wide range of science and business speakers, as well as youth climate activist Greta Thunberg. Building on that connection, in 2020 a team of young climate activists were invited from around the globe for conversations with climate scientists. Also in 2020, Professor Whiteman participated in a panel discussion alongside Sanne Marin (then Prime Minister of Finland), Al Gore, and Scott Minerd (Guggenheim Investments), and presented What’s at Stake: The Arctic. In 2020, Professor Whiteman moved on to a new role at Exeter University, and the Arctic Basecamp Foundation became a separate non-profit organisation under her leadership. It continues to hold events at Davos and beyond, and has co-developed Climate Risks Daily, an AI-powered tool highlighting the scale of climate impacts from extreme weather and the health impacts of climate change. ICE-ARC Dr Dmitry Yumashev joined the Pentland Centre as a Postdoctoral Researcher in August 2015 as part of the ICE-ARC project. He explains his work as lead author on a paper investigating global risks of Arctic permafrost decline. The work goes back to around 2013, when Gail Whiteman teamed up with researchers from Cambridge for a comment piece in Nature on the risks posed by the potential emissions of methane from subsea permafrost in the Arctic. The work produced more accurate interpretations of the uncertainties and the risks for the melting permafrost, sea-ice and other Arctic tipping points. Working through the Pentland Centre, we connected with networks in Lancaster Environment Centre, maintained our European-wide networks, and developed American connections. We worked with experts in permafrost, climate modelling, climate policy and economics modelling. The project identified that land permafrost was likely to be an ‘elephant’ in the room because it was not represented in the climate models and could lead to the biggest unaccounted impacts. The paper Climate policy implications of nonlinear decline of Arctic land permafrost and other cryosphere elements was published in Nature Communications in April 2019. It estimated additional long-term global economic impact from the Arctic tipping points to be almost $70 trillion, higher than in existing assessments. The research featured in the Guardian, on the World Economic Forum, and many other media outlets as well as exposure to various forums and decision-makers. This included the Environmental Audit Committee in the UK Parliament in Summer 2018. I am now principal consultant at Small World Consulting, a climate consultancy firm based in Lancaster Environment Centre, and also advise the Arctic Basecamp Foundation. The paper and the ICE-ARC project helped me transition to this career. I use all the experience I gained through the Pentland Centre in my work. Pictures show (from top) Arctic Basecamp 2017; L-R: Professor Gail Whiteman, Former US Vice President Al Gore, Professor Konrad Steffen, Dr Jeremy Wilkinson and Arctic Basecamp Youth Delegates 2020; L-R: Wenying Zhu, Kaime Silvestre, Vanessa Nakate, Brix Whiteman Muller, Eva Jones. Photo: © Henry Iddon
7 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025
Transforming Tomorrow 8 Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures In 2017, the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) released recommendations to help companies provide better information on their dependencies on a resilience climate system and their impact on climate change. In 2018, the Pentland Centre worked with Nestlé to put TCFD recommendations into practice. 2018 2019 2020 An interdisciplinary group of Lancaster University researchers, led by the Pentland Centre, work with Nestlé executives to understand the reporting requirements of TCFD, focussing upon the impacts of climate change on three key commodities; coffee, wheat and dairy. See results in Nestlé’s 2019 Annual Review (pp. 65-66) Nestlé announce in their 2019 Creating Shared Value Report that from 2020 they would be reporting the risks to Nestlé of climate changes in the annual financial report, in line with TCFD recommendations. See 2019 Creating Shared Value Report (p.48) Nestlé is used as a case study in the publication resulting from the WBCSD Forum. See 2020 Food, Agriculture and Forest Products, Preparer Forum Report (pp. 49-50) Professor Jeffrey Unerman and Dr Paul Young of the Pentland Centre use their experience of working with Nestlé to contribute to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Preparer Forum on Food, Agriculture and Forest Products. Nestlé 2020 Annual Review explicitly addresses exposure to climate risk. See Nestlé’s Annual Review (pp. 60-62)
9 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025 1 The Montreal Protocol (MP) is a global agreement to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the production and use of ozone-depleting substances. The MP was finalised in 1987 and went into effect on January 1st, 1989. 2 The Protocol mandates for three four-yearly reports under the auspices of the UN environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. These consider the science, environmental effects, and economic and technical considerations related to the ozone layer and ozone depleting substances. 3 Pentland Centre member Dr Paul Young contributed to the 2014 and 2018 Scientific Assessment Panel reports. He was a lead author on the 2022 Scientific Assessment Panel report. He contributed to the 2018 Environmental Effects Assessment Panel report, and the 2020 update. 4 In summer 2021, Paul was lead author on a Nature article: The Montreal Protocol protects the terrestrial carbon sink. The article was the first to quantify how the MP has had benefits for CO2. By protecting the ozone layer, the MP also protected the world’s biosphere, including its ability to store carbon. Without the MP, the world would have warmed more this century because the carbon that forests would have stored would have led to extra CO2 in the atmosphere. 5 As a result of the article, Paul wrote about the findings for The Conversation; was interviewed by BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science; and co-wrote a blog for Nature on lessons that can be learned from the MP for other climate treaties. The Montreal Protocol Effect
Transforming Tomorrow 10 In 2015, the same year the Pentland Centre was launched, new modern slavery legislation was introduced in the UK. This legislation required many UK-based businesses to be more transparent about their actions to combat modern slavery in their supply chains. Pentland Brands was one such company and asked Lancaster researchers to collaborate on a research project to investigate effective ways to detect and protect against modern slavery in supply chains. This initial project lasted for more than two years, with PhD student Amy Benstead, supervised by LUMS Professors Mark Stevenson and Linda Hendry, working closely with Pentland Brands’ Corporate Social Responsibility team. The relationship allowed unprecedented access to the development of company strategy and benefited the company as they enacted new policies. Using action research, the Lancaster team were involved in developing an audit protocol for factories and suppliers to identify the warning signs for breaches of modern slavery legislation. This included Amy travelling to Southeast Asia with Pentland Brands of colleagues and participating in the audit of a supplier, and contributing to the development of the first Pentland Brands modern slavery statement. This was a unique opportunity to work with Pentland on a live issue at the launch point of the Pentland Centre. Pentland’s first modern slavery statement is widely considered to be comprehensive, and they have continued to produce informative statements. Since then, Pentland Centre researchers have broadened their interests in social sustainability and labour exploitation. There has been analysis of modern slavery statements in a variety of industrial settings, and other colleagues have sought to understand the ‘worker voice,’ analysing issues, including gender inequality, in supply chains. Work to identify ‘risky’ ports for seafood workers has also been published. 2024 saw the launch of the new Pentland Centre Knowledge and Action Hub: Modern Slavery, Justice and Complex Supply Chains. This Hub brings together a breadth of inter-disciplinary expertise that seeks to better embed social sustainability within both global and local complex supply chains. The Hub provides a forum for research collaboration on how to enhance business governance systems that embody the principle of justice and lead to solutions co-created with industry to further combat modern slavery – noting that this principally takes the form of forced labour in this context. The Hub builds on the expertise of researchers from the Departments of Management Science, Accounting and Finance, Organisation Work and Technology, Entrepreneurship and Strategy and Marketing; the Schools of Law, and Computing and Communications; the Work Foundation; and from our international partners in Leipzig, Germany; and Sunway, Malaysia. Collectively, our research includes methods of detecting and remediating against modern slavery in global supply chains, and assessing the impact of modern slavery legislation which requires organisations to produce annual statements. Ongoing research includes assessing the working conditions of migrant workers, and the social sustainability of the ‘left-behind’ places where migrant workers have settled but have yet to flourish in both their workplaces and communities. There is still much to do to bring justice to global supply chain settings. You can find a map of our expertise, and contact details for the Hub on our webpage. Modern Slavery - a Hot Topic from the Get-go https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/modernslavery-and-sustainability Listen...
11 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025 Modern slavery reporting Research on modern slavery reporting practices in the UK by Dr Mahmoud Gad and Professor Steve Young reveals significant gaps in corporate disclosure. Analysing 100 London Stock Exchange-listed companies, they found that only 37% identify emerging labour issues, and 12% provide long-term plans for addressing modern slavery. While 72% file statements in the Modern Slavery Registry, many are outdated or difficult to access. Key areas of concern include a lack of information on due diligence, risk assessment, and effectiveness measurement. Only 39% of companies report KPIs with a rationale, and just 25% disclose results against KPIs. Moving forward, Centre researchers aim to enhance reporting quality by promoting best practices, emphasising forward-looking disclosures, and encouraging integration of modern slavery considerations into mainstream business risk assessments and board-level discussions. AI and modern slavery reporting This research leverages AI to enhance modern slavery reporting transparency and accountability. Dr Gad and Professor Young developed a proof-of-concept app that automates the scoring of company disclosures against a best practice framework. This AI-driven approach provides companies with instant disclosure scores. Centre researchers plan to further develop the app to provide actionable improvements. Future developments include fine-tuning the language model, incorporating a way to interpret graphs and maps, and enhancing the evaluation template. This innovative application of AI streamlines the reporting process and empowers stakeholders to drive meaningful change. During her PhD, Dr Amy Benstead, now a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester, collaborated with Pentland Brands’ Corporate Social Responsibility team. The project developed tools aimed at addressing modern slavery within the company’s supply chain. Modern Slavery Addressing Modern Slavery Tools to address modern slavery in supply chains: training, review of purchasing practices, risk matrix Targeted audit protocol for detecting modern slavery Development of Pentland Brands, first modern slavery statement Two reports setting the foundation for innovative, engaged research on complex and sensitive issues Research into collaborative relationships NGOs Other brands & retailers Pentland Brands The research contributed to the development of the world’s first national standard on modern slavery. BSI Standard Organizational Responses to Modern Slavery: Guidance (BS 25700), launched at House of Lords, January 2023
Transforming Tomorrow 12 Over the past decade, our Waste and Circular Economy focus has considered the social and business perspectives of waste. We have particularly examined the role the circular economy can play in transforming industrial operations by keeping products and materials in circulation for as long as possible, eliminating waste, and using greener energy for production. There have been three areas of noteworthy research – electronics; plastics and digital infrastructures. Electronics Electronic waste (e-waste) refers to discarded electronics, including mobile phones, computers, televisions, kettles, and other appliances. Three key consultancy and research projects on e-waste were: • Independent Study on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) flows in the UK • Electronic Waste – Challenges and Opportunities • Organic electronics: benefits, barriers and opportunities WEEE is a major global challenge, due to the increase in products, the changing EU/UK legislative landscape, and the impact on producers. REPIC Ltd, the largest UK Producer Compliance Scheme, sponsored an independent Pentland Centre project on the subject. The project team co-hosted a roundtable event with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and other WEEE stakeholders in July 2018 and published a whitepaper ‘Setting robust and realistic targets to support the transition to a Circular economy’. The research acted as a springboard to secure further funding from UK Material Focus to investigate the unreported flows of e-waste. Understanding the flows and fates of e-waste is crucial in setting effective policy targets, identifying secondary resources, assessing economic impacts, and mitigating environmental leakages. Research outcomes were published in a further whitepaper ‘Electronic Waste – Challenges and Opportunities’ and contributed to an invitation by the Environmental Committee Inquiry on Electronic Waste and the Circular Economy. The team also collaborated with Nanjing University on electronics disassembling and recycling industries. The third project on organic electronics examined the use of biobased materials in medical, wearable, and screen technologies, evaluating implications for industry. In collaboration with partners NeuDrive Limited and ASECCA Limited, a whitepaper was published outlining the benefits, barriers and opportunities for further research. Pentland members: Dr Junfeng Wang; Dr Lingxuan Liu; Dr Ivar Struijker Boudier; Dr Alison Stowell; Dr Dmitry Yumashev. Plastics Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives: Rethinking the consumer attitude-behaviour gap (PPiPL), is a flagship project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). See opposite for more information. Whilst the main project is complete, research continues on other projects: • Global Challenges Research Fund and Newton PPiPL: Malaysia Pilot Project • Single use plastics and the circular economy Digital infrastructures An exploration into the role of digital technologies in advancing the circular economy, particularly in domestic energy and reusable packaging, was undertaken in collaboration with Edinburgh-based start-up Reath, who have studied the challenges businesses face when adopting reusable packaging, especially with packaging taxes being based on weight. Reusable containers often become heavier when made more durable, leading to higher tax. To address this, members of the Pentland Centre team proposed using digital trackers or barcodes (“digital passports”) to monitor the lifespan and return rates of packaging. These trackers could help businesses manage costs, recycling, and marketing, and ensure lifecycle assessments account for the environmental impact of reusable containers. The system could also support tax exemptions for packaging refills, incentivising businesses to adopt more sustainable practices. Pentland members: Dr Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs; Dr Lucy Wishart. Waste and the Circular Economy https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/waste-andthe-circular-economy Listen...
13 Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL) was one of ten university-led research projects funded as part of UK Research and Innovation’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, connected to the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge. Plastic packaging occupies a key role in society’s global food production and consumption systems. It maintains food preservation and hygiene standards, provides value and convenience to consumers, and supports increasingly complex food supply chains. But increasing production, coupled with plastic’s longevity, pose significant problems to human health and wellbeing, and to the natural environment. Despite ambitious targets and ongoing public debate about the environmental and societal impacts of plastic, research suggests consumption practices remain largely at odds with consumers’ views. This ‘attitude-behaviour gap’ reveals that we do not fully understand the factors that shape, influence, and contextualise why people believe that we should reduce plastic use, but continue to use it? PPiPL focused on how plastic food packaging is embedded in consumers’ day-to-day lives. Taking a holistic approach, and using food plastic packaging as an exemplar, the project examined the whole packaging supply chain (production, consumption, post-consumption, waste disposal technologies and processes) to acquire insights that will enable policymakers and industry professionals to bridge the consumer attitude-behaviour gap in plastic packaging reduction. Addressing such global challenges calls for an interdisciplinary approach to identifying solutions. PPiPL brought academics from a range of disciplines together with 11 industrial partners to translate insights into practical solutions. This collaborative approach allowed the team to explore the key challenges and potential solutions across the plastic packaging value chain from different perspectives. PPiPL’s collective efforts have supported the ambitions of the UK Plastics Pact targets for 2025 by developing insights and action-orientated recommendations regarding communication, household practices, supply chain and waste management practices, and perceptions of the consumer attitude-behaviour gap. Pentland members: Professor Maria Piacentini; Dr Alison Stowell; Dr Charlotte Hadley; Dr Clare Mumford; Dr Savita Verma; Marta Ferri; Dr Lenka Brunclikova, Professor Linda Hendry; Dr Matteo Saltalippi Key insights and recommendations are on the PPiPL resource webpage. Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives Find out more about the PPiPL project here: https://youtu.be/U6OG9J8YK4M https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/ is-plastic-fantastic Listen... A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025
Heading Transforming Tomorrow 14 From its inception, the Pentland Centre championed sustainable soils and land use as one of its foundational themes. Led by Lancaster Environment Centre’s Professor Jess Davies, this theme has helped transform how businesses and policymakers view soil sustainability. Prior to 2015, soils were often the ‘forgotten foundation’ of sustainability. Professor Davies set out to bring soils into the spotlight of boardroom discussions and to reframe soil sustainability as both a business imperative and an investable opportunity. Her work and that of her research group and partners has helped businesses recognise the importance of healthy soils, while influencing policies and creating mechanisms to deliver benefits across climate, biodiversity, water, and food security. A business case for soil health Writing in Nature, Professor Davies called for global businesses to get to grips with soils sustainability, highlighting the risks posed by soil degradation and the opportunities for delivering on climate commitments. With the support of a Living With Environmental Change fellowship from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), she worked closely with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to develop a new work stream on sustainable soils. They co-developed a landmark report summarising the business case for soils from a multi-sector perspective, and highlighting the multi-faceted business case for investing in soils. This work inspired the WBCSD to launch a Soil Investment Hub to support investment in soils. The bottom line Translating awareness into action requires tools to embed soil sustainability into decision-making. Through a Valuing Nature award from the Natural Environment Research Council, Professor Davies and senior researcher Dr Victoria JanesBassett partnered with agri-food leader Olam International to produce a report on soil natural capital, identifying the pathways between soil stocks and the delivery of key services. More recently, Professor Davies has been part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Lake District Farmers (see opposite). A natural climate solution Through the Soil Value EPSRC fellowship, Professor Davies and her team delivered new evidence on the viability of soils as a natural carbon sequestration solution. They developed new models that estimate changes in terrestrial carbon storage under different land-use and management scenarios. The development of soil carbon models led to collaborations with Defra and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on the development of the Environmental Land Management Scheme policy and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Sustainable urban development Pentland Centre research highlighted the critical role of soils in sustainable urban development. Roisin O’Riordan’s PhD research demonstrated that urban soils are central to sustainable development and can store significant amounts of carbon. Her follow-on work helped bring together key actors to consider how soil sustainability can be integrated into planning and construction. This collaboration is helping embed soil considerations into local planning policies. Through the Rurban Revolution project, supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Pentland researchers, including Dr Lingxuan Liu, explored the potential of urban soils in enhancing national food sovereignty. The project revealed that urban green spaces could supply up to 40% of the UK’s fresh fruit and vegetable needs. Sustainable Soils and Land Use https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/soil-its-alive Listen...
15 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025 Heading Towards Net Zero Meat Production https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/lake- district-farmers LDF image Meat production and its associated carbon emissions is a topic that has gone beyond farmers and environmentalists into the mainstream. Lancaster Environment Centre, the Pentland Centre and Lake District Farmers have collaborated on a multi-disciplinary Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) on the subject. The KTP has sought to develop an understanding of the environmental impacts of upland livestock farming and meat production in particular, and the opportunities farmers offer in transforming the carbon emissions of these. There are three main research themes: • To establish baseline soil carbon stock (the amount of carbon held in soil, and therefore not released into the atmosphere) measurements in upland livestock farms in Cumbria • To model how soil carbon stocks may change under different farm management scenarios • To explore how farm-level carbon accounting may be useful to better understand business transitions towards Net Zero Three case study farms represent both the diversity of upland farming systems in Cumbria and the heterogeneity in climate, geology and aspect, which influence the soil type and farm environment. The key aim for both the researchers and the farmers is to investigate whether there is potential to reduce on-farm emissions in meat production and if there is a likelihood of increasing soil carbon stocks through changes in production and land management. To address the first theme, soil samples have been collected from across the three farms. Laboratory analyses have been carried out at Lancaster Environment Centre to determine carbon stocks. Using these data, the impact of different farm management decisions on soil carbon levels under future climate change scenarios will be modelled, employing a model developed by Professor Jess Davies and her colleagues. This work will have additional value as their model has not been tested in livestock systems. Consequently, the team will be able to understand the potential value of using this model in farm decision-making, and what modifications may be required to optimise the model for this use. The third research theme is looking to explore how different carbon accounting methods could be used to reflect the carbon profiles of case study farms. This will include bringing academic and business stakeholders together to focus on the best ways to model a life cycle analysis of upland livestock production that justly demonstrate the environmental impacts and financial implications of transitioning to Net Zero in these less-studied farming systems. This cross-discipline KTP collaboration has brought together a wide range of voices, enabling dynamic thinking about how we might move towards Net Zero meat production. Listen...
Transforming Tomorrow 16 Pentland Centre researchers’ interest in nature and biodiversity arises from two concerns: • Nature is being depleted and degraded to such an extent that it poses a systemic risk to the global economy. This concern arises from natural science insights but also from financial market regulators such as the Financial Stability Board and relates to how business impacts upon biodiversity. • Business depends on nature, and hence there are business continuity risks associated with loss of nature. The Centre’s Business and Biodiversity projects focus on these two dynamics. Key Concepts Nature and biodiversity are distinct concepts. Nature refers to the natural world, which includes biodiversity as well as the physical aspects of the Earth, such as oceans, mountains, and weather systems. Nature is broader than biodiversity, which focuses on the diversity and variability of life on the planet. Ecosystem services is a term used to describe the benefits that flow to society from nature. They are categorised into: (1) provisioning services (creating material such as food, water and resources like wood, fibre, medicines and genetic resources); (2) regulating services (processes such as climate and flood regulation, pollination and water purification); (3) cultural services (aesthetic, recreational and spiritual enrichment); and (4) supporting services (that ensure habitat functionality through photosynthesis, water and nutrient cycles). The Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services characterises the drivers of biodiversity loss as arising from: changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change; pollution; and invasive species. The presence of climate change on this list is why there are benefits from tackling climate and biodiversity issues together within a ‘net-zero, nature-positive’ framework. Business activities are direct and indirect contributors to each driver. The Global Biodiversity Framework The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted by 200 countries on 19 December 2022. Much of the Framework focuses on country level actions, however Article 15 calls on governments to develop regulations to ensure large and transnational companies and financial institutions monitor, assess, and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity. We anticipate this will mean companies will be required to disclose their impacts on biodiversity and the natural world, and corporate governance will become more focused on biodiversity impacts. Activities being pursued by Centre members feed directly into the knowledge base needed to support this process. Business, Nature and Biodiversity https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/business- and-biodiversity Listen...
17 https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/a-taskforcefor-nature A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025 Listen... Biodiversity scenarios for business Businesses should ensure their forward planning integrates nature and biodiversity. Biodiversity scenario development is recommended within the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and is a technique where hypothetical, but plausible, narratives of the future are developed for organisations to help them assess their exposure to naturerelated risks and opportunities. The Pentland Centre has developed business briefings to inform practice with a short and a longer version on this topic available. Reporting on Nature Each year the Pentland Centre reviews and identifies trends in a sample of corporate reports from companies in mining, oil and gas, food, clothing, household and beauty, forest products, and utilities (sectors with the largest dependency and impact on nature). Our 2024 Navigation Guide made a series of observations: 1. The kind of activity you are engaged in will drive reporting. For example, mine sites are well defined and relatively small so are easier to report on compared to food companies, who depend on land all over the world. 2. Country of incorporation influences the maturity of reporting. For example, the Government of Japan have provided support to companies and reporting there is more mature than average. 3. The TNFD and the approaches/tools they champion are influencing reporting (see next story). 4. For some companies, nature reporting appears to be an ‘add on’ rather than embedded in business strategy. Kering, CMPC and Forico are good examples of companies having comprehensive standalone nature strategy documents built upon clear, tangible and meaningful work on the ground. 5. Other companies are doing significant work but not providing a high level of reporting. For example, Mars rarely mentions nature, though it has one of the most far-reaching commitments for a food company reliant upon millions of hectares of land. It is aiming to ‘hold flat’ the land area associated with its value chain. 6. The idea of being ‘Nature Positive’ is emerging as an ambition for some companies. This idea suggests that a company should aim to support nature recovery equivalent to the impacts generated across their value chain. As nature is already degraded, it would be anticipated that rebuilding nature that has already been lost may also be part of such a strategy. Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures The TNFD is a “market-led and science-based initiative supported by national governments, businesses and financial institutions worldwide” that has published guidance for companies and financial institutions about how they can communicate and manage financial risks they face due to changes in nature. This standard focuses on nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities and some 120 companies had published under this framework by the end of September 2024. Centre researcher Dr Neytullah Ciftci is focused on examining early adopters of the TNFD with insights due to be published this year.
Transforming Tomorrow 18 Dr Tim Lamont, from Lancaster Environment Centre, and Pentland Centre Director Professor Jan Bebbington (along with other co-authors) collaborated on an academic paper that benchmarked ecosystem restoration reporting by a sample of corporations. What they found is that while many companies are undertaking restoration efforts, the data provided in sustainability reports did not provide sufficient information about the outcomes of these actions. This led researchers to work with practitioners to test proposed principles for robust reporting of restoration project design and implementation. • Corporations should work within the “mitigation hierarchy” by reporting their efforts to conserve existing habitat as a precursor to planning restoration. • Corporations should work with local stakeholders and decision-makers during the planning and implementation of restoration projects. • Projects should plan for lasting impact. Reports should state the number of years committed to maintenance and monitoring, and/or survival rates and durations of previous projects. • Restoration should be proportional to environmental damage created by corporate activities. • Corporations claiming to restore ecosystems should provide evidence that their initiatives are having the desired ecological impact. Projects should define specific goals of restoration and regularly monitor progress against these goals using quantitative ecological data. • Projects should target and report benefits beyond ecosystem recovery. For example, restoration can support local livelihoods, community engagement, education, research, training, and capacity building. • In many cases, historic baselines are no longer feasible owing to changing environmental conditions. Projects should monitor local “reference ecosystems” to guide efforts in restoring locally appropriate species compositions that are resilient to current and emerging threats. Practitioners and academics collaborated in a workshop in October 2024 to test these ideas. Here is a snapshot of their views. • An excellent project for us is a holistic project that scores well across all our criteria. It’s restoring an area; conserving an area; engaging the local community; and it has a long-term legacy. Catherine Savidge; European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) pictured opposite left • Excellence in this space is being transparent and honest about where you are and where you want to go. It is about achieving the goals you set out. It is having more nature in the world and being fully recovered by 2050. It is working inter-disciplinarily with businesses, academic institutions, financial institutions, and other actors to get the science right, have our actions aligned with global goals, and move as a collective towards a nature-positive outcome. Rachel Martin; Nature Positive Initiative, opposite bottom right • Part of our work is thinking about what it means for a business to be contributing to a nature-positive world. Excellent in this context means that we must be really ambitious. We have to go far above what is happening now. We need to make sure things are well-evidenced; we need to make sure the outcomes work for conservation but also for the communities that depend on biodiversity. Excellent means we need to drive up the level of ambition. Dr Thomas White; University of Oxford/Biodiversity Consultancy, opposite middle right • Excellence has many elements when it comes to businessled ecosystem restoration. Perhaps the thing that I find most exciting is that excellence says something about the location where the restoration is taking place, and whether there are other partners in that ecosystem doing things as well. One business can only do so much, but several working together could make a bigger difference. Dr Tim Lamont; Lancaster Environment Centre, opposite top right Principles that should underpin reporting Mitigation hierarchy Inclusion governance Permanence Proportionality Monitoring External benefits Reference ecosystems https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/naturerestoration Corporate-Led Environmental Action Reporting (CLEAR) Listen...
19 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025
Transforming Tomorrow 20 Our People and the Ocean Knowledge and Action Hub gathers expertise on the wide range of connections between people and the coastal and marine environment. It aims to share academic knowledge, and foster dialogue with private and public stakeholders. Led by Dr Celine Germond-Duret, the hub is interdisciplinary and draws knowledge from across many disciplines, from social sciences to arts and humanities, and from economics to law. Expertise among members includes justice and the blue economy; a sense of place in a coastal and marine environment; fisheries and social responses to fish farming; ports as novel hubs of ocean governance; blue avian ecologies; deep sea mining; and maritime security. People and the Ocean One of the Hub’s early activities has been the ‘Mapping Blue Business’ project. This seeks to investigate place-based blue economies. The blue economy as a concept emerged from the organisation of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio + 20), and can be defined as “the sustainable pursuit of economic activities resulting from the exploitation of coastal and marine resources”. However, there are different understandings of what it exactly means, how it can be applied, and how it can be measured. With an initial focus on Lancashire, UK, the ‘Mapping Blue Business’ project aims to assess the understanding of the blue economy by public and private actors, mapping regional marine economic activities (“blue businesses”), creating a blue network (to facilitate dialogue and knowledge exchange between these businesses), and identifying the potential for place-based blue economies. Through research, interviews, and research data from the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub, the project produced some preliminary mapping of sectors, businesses and jobs that contribute to a Lancashire blue economy. In June 2024, the findings were shared and discussed at a roundtable that gathered academic experts and regional stakeholders. The project will conduct further engagement with public and private stakeholders to build and refine the database. The Hub will continue to foster a broad array of activities, with a particular focus on ocean justice and the United Nations 2025 Ocean Conference, whose overarching theme centres on the mobilisation of all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean. Mapping Blue Business
Heading 21 A Pentland Centre Research & Impact Digest, 2025 Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) is an initiative working with keystone actors in the seafood industry. A keystone actor is an organisation that is both ecologically and economically significant. Led by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Pentland Centre brings scientific knowledge and expertise to SeaBOS, as well as studying the business changes that take place as a result of its endeavours. In particular, Professor Jan Bebbington’s work on corporate non-financial reporting has yielded new insights. Her work with SeaBOS challenges the norm of this reporting, focusing on the performance of a single company. The SeaBOS project is starting to show how collective and individual reporting may be read together to inform those seeking to understand corporate impacts on nature. The project has observed multiple reporting protocols engaged in by SeaBOS members: • The production of an impact report, outlining the performance of SeaBOS as a whole • A monitoring and reporting framework within the SeaBOS impact report that provides data on aspects of performance linked to the SeaBOS commitments • Each SeaBOS member company has its own non-financial reporting (that covers activities beyond SeaBOS) • Data provided by the Global Salmon Initiative about member companies across 15 sustainability indicators • Data on the sustainability of species caught in specific locations as curated by the Ocean Disclosure Project Each of these provide complementary insights into corporate performance for nature. Research is underway to examine how reading this data in concert changes our approach to corporate biosphere stewardship. SeaBOS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=