It’s time to rethink how family businesses think about and act on sustainability issues. It’s not always about being willing to act – but being capable.

Professor Alfredo De Massis, of Lancaster University Management School; the University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy; and IMD, in Switzerland, has worked on family businesses and entrepreneurship for decades – striving to produce knowledge that these firms can use to their advantage.

He joins us to look at why family business decisions are not always rational, why the generation in control of a firm is key to sustainability, and the differences made by geography, company size, industry, and the involvement of external experts at board level.

We look at why some family firms want to have a positive social impact and are more embedded in the community, the importance of transitions in leadership in affecting change in sustainability attitudes, and the differences between a business-first and a family-first family business.

Plus, Alfredo reveals why he is the black sheep of his family, we consider what AI will mean for the future of sustainability in businesses, Paul gets muddled by Gen-Z, and Jan is mesmerised by an Italian accent.

Read more about Alfredo’s work on environmental practices in family firms here: https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_FiftyFourDegrees_Issue_23/50/

For more information about Lancaster University’s Centre for Family Business, see here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/research/areas-of-expertise/centre-for-family-business/

And discover more about Alfredo here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/people/alfredo-de-massis

Step onto the terraces and discover how sustainable – or not – the global phenomenon that is football really is.

Paul puts his decades of sports reporting experience to good use as we talk to Dr Idlan Zakaria, from the University of Birmingham.

Idlan returns to her old Lancaster University stamping grounds and brings with her passions for both football and sustainability. She talks us through a love of football sparked by the 1982 World Cup and nurtured through years of supporting – to Paul’s annoyance firstly Manchester United, but now mainly Arsenal Women – watching, playing, and then coaching, and how sustainability ties into it all.

From the greenhouse gas emissions of clubs, fans and major global and continental tournaments, to the ‘world’s greenest football club’ Forest Green Rovers and their vegan-only diets across staff and players, and the rationality (or lack thereof) of supporting Barrow AFC, we look at how the beautiful game affects the planet.

We analyse the climate impact of constructing and maintaining stadiums – from carbon footprints to single-use plastic waste to water use to floodlight usage; become diverted by the Olympics; talk fast fashion football-style; consider the huge pay disparity between world-famous players and other club staff; and praise the power of grassroots organisations in instigating change among fans and clubs.

Can footballers be sustainability influencers? Can more clubs follow the Forest Green model? Why do clubs have so many different shirts?

Plus, Paul takes the chance to have a rant or two; Jan faces awkward questions about football; Dundee United, Aberdeen and Partick Thistle take some unwarranted abuse; the definition of a good Geordie comes into question; and Jan is bafflingly compared for the first – and probably last – time to pop megastar Taylor Swift!

Read more about sports sustainability charity Pledgeball, who support fans and players to take meaningful climate action, here: https://pledgeball.org/about-us/

And you can discover more about Forest Green Rovers – minus why other teams don’t like them – here: https://www.fgr.co.uk/another-way/

Episode Transcript

Nature is naturally on the move. But how does wildlife move through and across urban environments that are not designed for it? And what can people and businesses do to support movement? This is where nature corridors come in.

Duncan Pollard, Honorary Professorial Fellow with the Pentland Centre, joins us to expand on his previous discussion of business and biodiversity with a talk about helping species move.

With a focus on agriculture, forestry, lineal infrastructure (such as power lines or railways cutting across landscapes), and asset owners, Duncan looks at the actions that companies have taken, and what they might do going forward.

We talk about the dynamism of nature, what a nature corridor can be – both naturally and artificially – why governments and business have focused on protected areas rather than connectivity in the past, and the importance of neighbouring organisations working together to make a substantial difference.

Discover how golf courses can encourage nature, whether there are any companies reporting well on their dependency on nature, and what might be coming next.

Plus, is Jan’s garden a menace to her neighbours? How has this podcast aged its hosts? And what has Jan geeking out?

For more information on the Pentland Centre’s Business and Biodiversity Knowledge and Action Hub, see here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/activities/knowledge-and-action-hubs/business-and-biodiversity/

And details of the free business briefings from the Pentland Centre can be found here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/activities/knowledge-and-action-hubs/business-and-biodiversity/biodiversity-literacy/

The Global Reporting’s standard on biodiversity can be found here: https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/standards-development/topic-standard-for-biodiversity/

For more detail on Suzano’s restoration in Brazil activities see here: https://www.suzano.com.br/news/suzano-will-restore-cerrado-atlantic-forest-and-amazon-biomes and see the funding model they have adopted here: https://www.suzano.com.br/en/sustainability/planet/environment-and-biodiversity/biomas

Episode Transcript