Transforming Tomorrow

Discover how you can embed sustainability across a Higher Education organisation.

Dr Alex Ryan, Director and Founder of Learning Energy, returns to her old Lancaster University haunts to tell us about her work inside and outside universities on the ‘great big gobbling monster’ of sustainability. Alex helps people and organisations address sustainability challenges: work is not always easy.

We discuss the evolution of understanding and action in universities over the last 20 years; the importance of changes to culture and strategy; how to place the common good ahead of self-interest when making changes; and how the univ...

Antibiotics have been around for hundreds of thousands of years – no, we didn’t know that either! They are harmful to bacteria, and without them we would have a world where life is much harder.

But in recent decades, overuse of antibiotics has led to the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This evolutionary response has been accelerated as humans have developed more and more antibiotics – leading to a biological arms race.

Dr Oskar Nyberg, from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Dr Patrik Henriksson, from Leiden University and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, are part of a pr...

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.

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If you carry out fascinating work on entrepreneurship and sustainability, you still need for people to understand it.

Professor Sreevas Sahasranamam, from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow, pipped Jan and Paul to the Management Publication of the Year Award – but do they hold a grudge? No, they don’t!

Sreevas is a keen proponent of communicating research and expertise in novel and accessible ways. His blogs aim to reach and engage policymakers and government, as well as the public, opening previously inaccessible doors for him, such as opening up access to t...

What is the reality for a small business when it comes to adopting sustainable practices? How hard is it to turn ideals into practical applications?

 In the first of our Local Heroes episodes, Steve Parkman, from Cumbrian design studio 42 Creative Thinking talks us through the changes he has made to his company’s operations to make it more sustainable.

Steve has been part of the Transforming Tomorrow journey since before it was a podcast, and he discusses his learning journey in both design and sustainability. We discuss how sustainability has changed fundamentally the rol...

What is servitization? Could it be the future for more businesses? How does it link to productivity and sustainability? And why is it spelt with a z? We answer at least three of these questions as we explore an area that is relevant to giant global corporations and small businesses alike.

What if, instead of a crane, you charge by the number of lifts it carries out; if instead of selling a physical tyre, you provide a certain amount of miles; if a company offers you so many air miles from an engine? These are all examples...

A location for romance, violence or murder – sleeper trains in film and fiction are always places for drama. But the reality may be somewhat different.

As a sustainable travel option that is enjoying a resurgence in Europe – and, perhaps surprisingly, in China – they link big cities and are evolving to meet modern needs.

Lancaster University Management School Marketing Lecturer Dr Nicole Bulawa may never have taken the midnight train to Georgia, but her work on sleeper trains tells her that Murder on Orient Express and From Russia With Love may not be the most accurate depict...

How can we educate university students around the world on important sustainability topics? You cannot talk to them all in the same way as those in other countries – because different countries and cultures have different attitudes and priorities.

Dr Stephen Homer has gone from being a commercial fisherman and a fishmonger to a leader on sustainability education at Sunway Business School in Malaysia, inspired by his experiences before moving into academia.

He tells us all about the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) and how they help management and business schools make sense of the UN...

Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity have become dirty words in some quarters recently. But not on Transforming Tomorrow.

We want to talk about the need for greater gender equality in business, the challenges the movement is encountering in the face of Donald Trump and other vocal critics, and how Malaysia measures up when it comes to EDI.

Sunway University’s Professor Yuka Fujimoto has spent years travelling from country to country and has built and interest and expertise on diversity and inclusion as a result.

We discuss how the political climate can change corporate be...

Economic inequality from childhood impacts on all aspects of life, affecting work prospects, educational attainment, and health outcomes. Reducing inequality, therefore, is central to building a better future for millions of people.

From the site of a former mining operation just outside Kuala Lumpur, we are joined by Professor Mahendhiran Sanggaran to discuss how the location is now home to Sunway University, a leading light in Malaysian sustainability research and development for more than 50 years.

Mahendiran’s work includes the Desa Mentari project, and we discover how work among low-income communities can benefit young and ol...

We’re by the pool in the Malaysian sunshine. But we’re not here to sunbathe – we’re talking all things sustainability in a country with challenges both familiar and foreign to Western Europe.

 Jan’s ‘academic granddaughter’ Dr Ann Marie Sidhu is a chartered accountant who works with business and government in Malaysia on the challenges of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

We discuss what Government and industry in Malaysia need to do to achieve the SDGs – especially energy transition in an economy where the petrochemical industry is dominant – how an emerging economy deals with regulations ar...

It’s time to look to the future and consider what comes next for society and industry.

Dr Rebecca Liu, from Lancaster University Management School’s Department of Marketing, and Steve Kremer, from consultancy Periphas, who specialise in connecting technology innovators, join us to discuss Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0. Both concepts envision the world’s next evolution.

This means a vision of a super-smart society, where smart tech is integrated into every aspect, serving the needs of humanity, and solving major global issues as it blends the cyber and physical worlds.

In industry, it is abo...

Not everyone takes breakfast, lunch and dinner for granted. For millions, there is no guarantee of where their next meal will come from, or its quality.

Biraj Patnaik, Executive Director of the National Foundation for India, introduces us to the concepts and realties food poverty and food inequality, and how his organisation works with communities on the margins of Indian society towards enabling social justice.

We discuss how and why the right to food has been part of legislative discourse in India; how the caste system and gender discrimination influence who suffers malnutrition and starvation...

Are you a public or a private person? Or maybe a bit of both? It’s not always easy to say.

The same goes for how we characterise the public and private sectors. The private sector goes beyond a simple characterisation of making a profit – and the public sector beyond providing services for people. The boundaries are blurring – where do the public and private sectors meet, and how does their symbiotic relationship work?

Dr Martin Quinn is a Reader in OWT – which in his northern brogue suggests a life of vague reading lists and relaxed afternoo...

Young people are bombarded with a huge number of issues – from cost-of-living to the challenge of finding employment, an ever-changing global political landscape to inclusion. Where does sustainability fit into the mix?

Darren Axe, Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS)’s International Membership and Engagement Manager, has an ironic name given he has planted many trees during his career – and surely no-one has ever mentioned it!

We discuss the work of SOS in the UK and across their international team in galvanising students and allowing them to realise how sustainability cuts across the challenges they face.

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How do we educate the next generation on sustainability? How do we help them think of themselves as citizens of ‘one world’? What are their – and our – responsibilities as future responsible leaders?

Dr Jose Alcaraz-Barriga, from Lancaster University Leipzig, tell us how he teaches his students to connect business activities with the planet’s future.

Jose takes his own knowledge on planetary boundaries and the Anthropocene and applies it in his teaching to ensure young people are not overwhelmed by the situation but also understand how action at a local level can make a real impact.

Can a big in-person event be sustainable? Or do all events need to move online? Do you spend your time at parties wondering how sustainable it is – and how it could be better?

Hilary Barraclough oversees events organisation across Lancaster University, and she and her team try to make them as sustainable as possible.

From promoting sustainable travel to and from venues, to ensuring lower levels of food waste from catering – and increasing the amount of vegan and vegetarian food being served, and cutting down on needless packaging, there are many ways to make a diff...

What do businesses get up to in the two-thirds of the world’s oceans outside national jurisdictions?

Professor John Virdin has always loved the ocean – despite growing up hundreds of miles from the sea. As Director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Programme at Duke University Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions in North Carolina, he has a job title too long for his business card, but a long-term dream of better protection and management of the way we use ocean to provide more food and jobs for people on the coast around the world.

John...

What can you do to transform your business? What actions can you take to help it be more sustainable? How can your operations be part of the overall sustainability solution and shaping a better society – and how can this ensure your own success?

Professors Julia Binder and Knut Haanaes from IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, are here to discuss their new book Leading the Sustainable Business Transformation, and the many topics it addresses.

There are many positive examples of business practice across economic, social and environmental sustainability – and Knut even sees the sustainability ‘backlash’ as a pos...

The law is back in town! How can you legislate for plastic pollution all around the world? Is it possible to get close to 200 countries to agree on the way forward? What will such a treaty include?

Dr Alexandra Harrington is an environmental law specialist in Lancaster University Law School who has been part of the negotiations for a proposed international plastics treaty as a UN-accredited observer. It has not been straightforward – hence the lack of an agreement so far.

She takes us behind the scenes on negotiations that have taken place around the world – even...

There are around 144,000 people in the district of Lancaster – from the city itself to Morecambe, the villages and rural areas beyond. They produced 8,998 tons of household recycling in 2023.

So, why do these residents only recycle 36% of their plastics? What could you as a resident do to improve your habits? And what happens to the plastic that is recycled when the council collects it?

It’s time to bring an end to our investigation of the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives project – and we bring it all back home.

Carly Sparks, Lancaster City Council’...

Do you know what happens to your plastic recycling after your bins are emptied?

As we continue our journey through the plastics pipeline, we encounter bin juice and the Mafia.

Lancaster University’s Dr Clare Mumford and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM)’s Richard Hudson take the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives project to the final stage of its process – how plastic waste is dealt with.

It turns out plastic is not very sociable – one type does not get along with another – and this just adds to the complications when it comes to...

Listening to this episode can change your shopping habits!

Do supermarkets care about the planet? What actions are they taking to reduce waste? How are they changing their packaging to address the plastics problem?

The team hit the road to speak with Katie Gwynne and Jane Routh, from Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives project partners Booths, about how the supermarket chain thinks and acts around plastic packaging, and how they are looking to change their own behaviours and those of their customers.

With an ethos of ‘being the good grocers’ discover how Booths...

How do you treat plastic waste in your home? Are you a good consumer? A good recycler or a wishcycler? And is recycling the first thing you see when you open the door to your house?

Professors Alex Skandalis and James Cronin bring their marketing and consumer culture expertise to the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives project – and to the podcast – to analyse consumer behaviours around plastic. But are they just making up all of the language and concepts they mention?

From the Aztecs to the Dark Ages, the Victorians to the present day, we dis...

It’s not just consumers who need to change their attitudes and behaviours around plastics.

Packaging manufacturers and retailers need to take action too.

Professor Linda Hendry makes a return visit to the podcast, explaining how her work on supply chains unites her interests in plastics as part of the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL) project and on modern slavery.

We look at how food producers, packaging manufacturers and retailers decide how to package and transport food before it reaches consumers; the role of government and regulation when it comes to pack...

“I just want to say one word to you. Just one word… plastics.”

We don’t have Dustin Hoffman, but we do have a journey into a fascinating world as we take a deep dive into the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL) project.

Dr Alison Stowell and Professor Maria Piacentini join us as we discover how consumers think and behave when it comes to plastic food packaging, and how PPiPL hopes to change the attitude-behaviour gap.

Discover how the project researchers have engaged with organisations from supermarkets to local government, SMEs to waste m...

Take a moment to consider what your local area. Do you feel connected to it? Does it feel like a real home?

Morecambe Bay is a natural marvel. Stretching from Fleetwood in the south to Barrow-in-Furness in the north, it encompasses Lancaster, Morecambe, and many small towns and villages along the Lancashire and Cumbria coastlines.

And Paul feels right at home as he and Jan welcome Carys Nelkon and Dr Beth Garrett to reveal the wonders of the Morecambe Bay Curriculum to them.

The curriculum involves more than 140 educators across the Bay and...

How can business and management schools help to shape the leaders the world needs? It’s time to examine how we operate, and how we can change to better suit the businesses of the future.

Dr Marian Iszatt-White becomes our first return guest as she talks to Jan and Paul about her work on the B-School to ESG School project. Her latest work is looking at how Environmental, Social and Governance should be at the heart of a business school’s operations.

Discover how we can help to ensure our graduates go into the world and...

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...

Jan is a joy rider. And that’s just great.

Not everyone is an elite athlete, but we should all be active.

The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) is doing important work with some of the biggest names in their sector to help make this a reality.

Emma Zwiebler, a World Championship and Commonwealth Games badminton player who is now CEO of the WFSGI, explains how the trade association body operates and how they have put this mission at the core of their activities.

We investigate the issue of...

It’s Paul’s worst nightmare – a whole episode about ranking and accrediting business schools!

 Learn how business schools build sustainability into their operations; why accreditation bodies – whose backing schools rely on for their prestige – take the issue so seriously; and how important the topic is when it comes to rankings.

Rose White, External Accreditation Manager at Lancaster University Management School, comes ready for Paul to rant about whether rankings should be important to anyone – and she gets just what she expects!

Rose and Jan might be unable to convince Paul of the merits of ben...

Jan’s considering a new career – should she become a sustainability officer?

Chief Sustainability Officers are among the fastest growing jobs in the UK – but who are these people, what do they do, and does anyone actually listen to them?

Dr Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs, from the University of Strathclyde, brings gifts from her allotment to the studio as well as an avid interest in all things sustainability that started in childhood in Washington state, USA – where she was surprised to learn not all other youngsters had the same obsession. She also comes with a healthy dose of cynic...

Bring back the accountants – and the taskforces! It’s time to look at how companies identify and report on nature-related impacts and opportunities.

We make an investigation of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and its work with the Pentland Centre’s Dr Neytullah Ciftci – Neo to his friends – who works with Jan on that very topic.

Discover how companies can change nature; how these changing ecosystems could be a risk to your business; and the importance of analysing supply chain impacts as well as your own operations.

We look at how companies...

How can businesses have a positive impact on nature? We hear a lot about the negative effects organisations have on the planet, but they can also be a force for good.

By helping to restore nature, firms big or small, local or global, can help themselves and their operations – and maybe all of us. But what are they actually doing, and why can it be so hard for them to tell us?

Dr Tim Lamont, a marine biologist in Lancaster Environment Centre, explains his work on corporate reporting around nature restoration, and how the subject fi...

What do big companies do to positively contribute to sustainability efforts, and to wider society? What does your employer do? Is it enough, and could they do more?

Brands and brand values send messages and have their own sustainability identities, so it’s time to look at how this affects their actions.

Kaeisha Gibson, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Pentland Brands, discusses how brands including Speedo, Canterbury, Endura, Mitre, and more, approach their strategies towards sustainability.

The conversation focuses in on the Berghaus outdoor gear brand and its B-Corp certification, which demonstrates their de...

The battle between good and evil comes to Transforming Tomorrow. What is good? What does ‘good’ mean in the context of how you do business?

We look at how companies can balance profit with doing right in the world, why it doesn’t necessarily take as long as you think to move to a new way of thinking and working, and whether the world needs to be in crisis to force corporations to act.

Professor Steve Kempster explains his work on Good Dividends, and how he has worked with businesses to see how they work and if...

Put on your activism boots and join us on a journey from the Antarctic to Sweden and the Arctic, China, Lancaster and many places in between.

We find out the differences between being an activist and an academic, how you go from being one to the other, and how experience as an activist gives you unique and invaluable insights for research.

Frida Bengtsson describes her journey from growing up in a family where Greenpeace was an important presence, to being lead of the organisation’s Global Oceans campaign, before becoming a PhD researcher at the St...

We’re blasting off into space! Find out all you need to know to mine an asteroid – though be warned, it’s not that simple. 

Discover which laws you have to follow beyond Earth’s atmosphere, how we get to asteroids in the first place, and what this might mean for life here and millions of miles away. 

Dr Craig Jones joins Jan and Paul for an astronomical start to the new series. He specialises in asteroid mining and the myriad issues that arise when it comes to considering how it could be done, and what the p...

What are externalities? How does the EU have environmental effects beyond its borders? What is justice?

We bring Season One of Transforming Tomorrow to a close with Jan answering some of the questions that have come up during previous episodes.

Jan explains externalities, and how (not when) they can be internalised; why it is important to know about the EU’s impacts; and the many elements to justice.

Plus, a sneak peek at what is coming up in Season Two.

Find details on the Frontiers of Justice book Jan mentions here: ht...

What is ‘future normal’? How will the world look years from now? How will businesses operate? How could they make your children proud? And how does sustainability fit into all this?

Professor Nick Barter, from Griffith University, takes Jan and Paul through the origins of the phrase from his time working with industry while completing his PhD with Jan at the University of St Andrews.

Covering topics from corporate direction-setting and vision to culture and language, learning from nature, and enabling others, Nick talks to us about how companies can change to be part of a wo...