The Sustainable Consumption Institute: Changing business behaviour

The University of Manchester’s collaboration with businesses has helped them develop new processes and ways of working and supporting the service industries to become more competitive - and more sustainable.  The Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), based at Manchester, is engaged in research that will help the much needed transition to a low carbon economy.  A new SCI report launched this week is helping business move one step closer to that transition.

Through the Institute, Dr Joanne Tippett - a lecturer in the School of Environment and Development - is using her skills to help Tesco develop a new low carbon approach from the inside. She has facilitated workshops with over one hundred Tesco employees, giving them the opportunity to understand the likely impact of climate change, as well as helping them to see that they have the potential to do something about it. The final report which details the findings of these workshops is now available to download at http://www.sci.manchester.ac.uk/publications/projectreports/skills_in_the_workplace/

Dr Joanne Tippett said: "We wanted to help staff see sustainability as an opportunity, rather than just doom and gloom. Staff at all different tiers of the company can do something - from management challenging practices at the top, to cashiers talking to customers about the use of plastic carrier bags."

Joanne hopes to give companies the tools to come up with their own solutions, rather than have them imposed from outside experts or regulators.

With this type of partnership everyone can be a winner – the university, Tesco, Joanne - and the planet. Tesco is opening its doors to a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Joanne points out that she "is able to act as a bridge between academic thought and practical application. I bring cutting edge knowledge from change management and sustainability together with tools inspired by community development and the arts." The work also makes business sense for Tesco, helping them to stay ahead of the game.

Dr Tippett noted: "Sustainability is a big challenge for all of us. If businesses don't engage in this kind of work they will not be able to stay ahead of competitors."
 
Such work with businesses has also had another, unintended, outcome for Joanne - it has helped her to see the commercial potential of some of her ideas. Joanne developed a toolkit to help engage communities in the early part of her career, and has since realised that this toolkit can be used in many different scenarios, including in the business environment. "People were saying to me that they wanted to use this toolkit in their work - that's when I started to see the wider potential of the idea." 

She has now launched the toolkit as a company called Ketso, which means 'action' in Lesotho, Southern Africa where Joanne first developed the early versions of the kit. Ketso gives group facilitators the confidence and ability to make sure everyone is included and valued in discussions and meetings, while supporting effective decision making and action planning. .
 
Whilst Joanne had the bright idea, the support from the university helped her turn this into reality: "Being based at the University of Manchester did help. They gave me advice on business development and intellectual property rights, and starting the company from the university has made a great difference in being recognised.  For the university it is about thinking about how to amplify or make the most of these new ideas to drive whole system change. The University of Manchester wants to help lead the next post-industrial, sustainable revolution - just as Manchester led the industrial revolution over two hundred years ago."

For more information please visit the SCI website at http://www.sci.manchester.ac.uk/ or contact Lynda McIntosh, Communications and Marketing at Lynda.mcintosh@manchester.ac.uk