FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 5 Professor Claire Leitch is the Executive Dean of Lancaster University Management School c.leitch@lancaster.ac.uk In this issue, we focus on one of the three key areas in which we have built a reputation for research excellence – sustainability. We can all be guilty at times of thinking too narrowly when it comes to sustainability. This is not a subject restricted to environmental sustainability – there are economic, social, institutional and cultural considerations as well. Our researchers constantly impress me with their diversity of work encompassing them all. Much of this research is conducted by members of the Pentland Centre of Sustainability in Business. Since its formation in 2015, the Pentland Centre has been a home for academics – and, more recently, our non-academic colleagues in LUMS – who want to collaborate with and impact businesses in their operations. Under the leadership of Jan Bebbington, the Pentland Centre continues to grow and evolve, with members across all our departments – as well as within the University’s other faculties – working on areas as wide-ranging as modern slavery reporting, social inequalities and digital technologies, sustainable oceans, and resilience in family businesses. If we were to include them all here, we would need a physical tome far weightier than this magazine, though for those wanting a broad overview of Pentland’s activities, I can point you in the direction of their excellent Transforming Tomorrow publication. Here, we have a selection of the School’s most recent work, a collection which spans sustainability’s connections with religion, accounting, economics, and more. You might be wondering how all these spheres tie in with the overarching subject. And you would not be alone in that regard. This is something Jan as Director of the Pentland Centre recognises, and she has worked with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to help inform and educate the next generation of accountants about how their work influences the future of the planet. If accountants can help to shape strategy within companies, can we change individual consumer habits as well? This is what Dakshina De Silva and Anita Schiller investigate when they look at how much more people are willing to pay for products if they are better for the planet. It is a situation all of us are going to encounter, and a decision we will all have to make – we cannot go on consuming the same things at the same prices if we are to expect a wider change to the environment. These decisions, and their economic consequences are hard, and many factors come into play. For some business owners, those considerations have a religious angle. Allan Discua Cruz brings us his insight into the connections between religion and sustainability when it comes to Christian owners of family businesses. Reading his work, it is fascinating to see the many overlaps between theology and the green agenda. Do these agendas only apply in the western world? Linda Hendry has studied why coffee suppliers in Brazil pursue sustainability agendas, and finds that pressures from customers with their own priorities is only part of the picture. The problem is that the suppliers are so rarely given the chance to voice their own reasons. Mahmoud Gad’s work on modern slavery reporting in UK companies tackles an area where people are left voiceless for other reasons. It would be nice to think that recent government legislation and regulation had led to businesses fulfilling their requirements, and yet Mahmoud and his colleague Steve Young have found this is far from the case. Mahmoud recently spoke at a Parliamentary event highlighting issues around reporting which must be addressed if we are to successfully combat modern slavery practices and their inherent human rights abuses. Hopefully, these articles will open your mind to new dimensions of sustainability, and as a School we aim to continue to bring them to light. Until next time, enjoy this edition. Foreword It is my pleasure to welcome you to another edition of Fifty Four Degrees, shedding light on the high-quality research that takes place every day within Lancaster University Management School. Subscribe online at lancaster.ac.uk/fiftyfour SUBSCRIBE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=