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 determination to be a positive influence on the world and do no harm.

Learn why Berghaus pursued B-Corp status, what they do to maintain that certification, how they challenge themselves to improve, the plans for other brands under the Pentland banner to follow the Berghaus lead, and how old Jan’s Berghaus rucksack is.

Plus, after Jan uses the word ‘groovy’ once again without irony, does Kaeisha have the power to have her fired? And does Paul really only wear branded clothing?

Find out more about Berghaus’s B-Corp certification here: https://www.berghaus.com/positive-business/bcorp.list

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 they can change it for the better.

Discover what a Benefit Corporation is, how purpose-led businesses perform against their competitors, and whether Steve has hope for the future.

Plus, Steve sets out to change our understanding of Adam Smith – and contemplates if he would be the kind of person to give you a High Five – and Paul becomes self-conscious about his eyebrows.

Find out more about Steve and his work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/about/meet-the-team/steve-kempster

Discover the Good Growth programme featuring Good Dividends here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/business/good-growth-burnley/

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 Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Frida’s work now looks at ocean governance and transhipment (and we will definitely find out what that means), introducing Jan and Paul to a world where understanding vessel ownership leads to murky waters, where regulations in the middle of the seas can be a maelstrom of confusion, and where we consider the ethics behind a fish finger sandwich.

What happens on fishing boats that stay at sea for months at a time? What is it like meeting with an organisation as an academic when you last met them while working for Greenpeace?

And why does Jan send Frida pictures of ships in every port she visits?

Discover more about Frida and her work at the Stockholm Resilience Centre here: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/meet-our-team/staff/2021-06-01-bengtsson.html

And read about Frida’s new paper on reefers and transshipment here: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/reefers