Lancaster University’s Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, named for the $3 billion-a-year UK sporting goods group, has officially opened.
The Pentland Centre will bring together the best minds in science and business to find more sustainable ways of working that can be applied and scaled by business. Pentland owns Berghaus, Canterbury of New Zealand, Speedo, Boxfresh, Ellesse, KangaROOS, Mitre, Prostar and Red or Dead. The Group is also the majority owner of JD Sports Fashion plc, which operates over 800 sports, fashion and outdoor stores across Europe and a shareholder in Hunter Boot, Tracksmith and other companies.
This opening of the Pentland Centre marks the start of an exciting partnership is between Pentland Group and Lancaster University home to one of the UK’s top business schools and one of the leading environmental research centres in Europe. The centre will take a multi-disciplinary approach, encouraging businesses and academics to find practical solutions to real world problems. It will focus on six areas of research: ethical supply chains; scaling up business solutions; sustainable soils and land use; food, energy and water issues; ecosystems risk; and, sustainable lifestyles and cities.
Professor Gail Whiteman will be leading the Pentland Centre as the Rubin Chair for Sustainability in Business. Before joining the centre, Professor Whiteman spent more than a decade at the Rotterdam School of Management and had a distinguished career in the private sector – originally working in advertising and marketing – and academia.
Professor Whiteman has also spent time living with the Cree indigenous Canadians as part of her PhD at Canada’s Queens School of Business. She will continue ongoing work studying Arctic sea-ice change, bringing a team of researchers with her.
“My over-riding mission is to link the best minds in science, the best minds in business and local people to help deliver positive change,”said Whiteman. “It’s about boiling down the messages to make the science more understandable for leaders in business.”
Stephen Rubin, Chairman of Pentland Group, says,
“It’s vital that we have the brightest minds in business and science working closely in a field that’s so important for businesses to act on. I hope the Pentland Centre will inspire business leaders of today, as well as the next generation”
Corporate sustainability is a relatively new discipline, requiring people with new skills and expertise. The Pentland Centre is providing the next generation of talent the chance to gain experience and apply their knowledge in a commercial environment.
