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 the world of the G20, and giving his work new impact potential.

We talk through Sreevas’s work in his India homeland looking at the role of digital ecosystems among entrepreneurs, and on how rural entrepreneurship ecosystems are built in remote communities, as well as more broadly on the links between the Sustainable Development Goals and entrepreneurship.

Sreevas has found that despite a lot of talk about entrepreneurs in the Global North engaging with sustainability, it is those in the Global South who are taking the lead – where the impacts of climate change are being felt more keenly.

Discover the difference between SDG awareness and SDG action, the familial links to natural resources in parts of India, and the benefits to business of the spread of cheap internet access across that country.

Plus, buying chai from a small roadside business with contactless payments, the rise of the Chinese sustainability market, and the benefits of QR codes (even for accounting).

Find out more about Sreevas and his work here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/business/staff/sreevassahasranamam/

And read some of his award-winning blogs here: https://sites.google.com/view/sreevas/media?authuser=0

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 role of a designer – when they work in both print and digital; how Steve has switched to solar power for his design work; and the attitudes of the businesses and customers Steve works with towards being greener.

Steve talks us through how print and paper products can be sustainable, the growth of European forests in recent years, how green servers can reduce digital carbon footprints, and the advantages small businesses have when they decide they want to make a switch in their operations.

Discover why Jan turned down the chance to cycle to Malaysia, how the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fits into everything, whether Paul and Jan understand a word of Welsh, and why Steve has gone off the grid.

Find out more about 42 Creative Thinking here: https://www.42creative.co.uk/

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 of servitization that already exist – it even applies in industrial food packaging.

Lancaster University Management School’s Professor Andreas Schroeder is a servitization expert, working with numerous firms on how they can change their operations to move to a servitization model to benefit their operations, and others on how they can use their data in new ways.

He tells us about the key differences between products and services; how servitization blurs the boundaries on relationships with customers and suppliers – are they now more like partners?; the differences between rental agreements and servitization; and why it can be easier for smaller companies to pivot their operations to this model.

Discover some of servitization’s success stories, how it can affect a company’s carbon footprint and align profit with sustainability, how it encourages an operation to design and create products for service, repair and circularity, and how data collection, analysis and optimisation can identify where value opportunities lie and improve practical operations.

Paul lets his anger at American spelling take over; Jan discovers a new friend who can put on a Kiwi accent; and everyone becomes fascinated by tyres, hydrogen-powered diggers and aeroplane engines.

Find out more about Andreas and his work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/people/andreas-schroeder

Episode Transcript