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Journal of Accounting Literature

ISSN : 0737-4607

Article publication date: 7 June 2016

Issue publication date: 30 June 2016

Global investors demand, regulators require, and companies disclose their sustainability performance information, and scholars have started to conduct research on sustainability performance, reporting and assurance. The goal of firm value creation can be achieved when management considers the interests of all stakeholders and integrates all five economic, governance, social, ethical, and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance into managerial strategies, actions and reporting. This paper provides a synthesis of research on sustainability and presents a theoretical framework consisting of theories and standards relevant to all five EGSEE dimensions of sustainability performance and risks and their integration into corporate culture, business models and reporting in creating stakeholder value.

• Corporate governance
• Integrated sustainability reporting
• Sustainability performance
• Sustainability assurance

Rezaee, Z. (2016), "Business sustainability research: A theoretical and integrated perspective", Journal of Accounting Literature , Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 48-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acclit.2016.05.003

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Publishing Limited

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Sustainable Business Went Mainstream in 2021

• Andrew Winston

This year, ESG moved from a “nice to have” to an essential part of corporate strategy — and there’s no going back.

In 2021, many climate trends that were gaining steam in years past became the norm. In this article, which describes the five biggest climate and sustainable business stories from the past year, the author points to ESG standards and electric vehicles as two of these “there’s no going back” items. The other three stories — business defending democracy, the COP26 climate meeting, and tech’s role in sustainability, were decidedly more mixed. As for 2022, look out for the growing youth voice, ESG tug-of-wars and new standards, and more partnerships to solve big problems, among other coming trends.

How do you know when something becomes the norm? Trends in corporate sustainability have been mostly consistent — an expanding climate crisis, lightning-speed growth in clean tech, rising pressure from many stakeholders, and more. But I generally felt a sense of, “these trends are growing and will be dominant…someday.” In the past year, however, “someday” seems to have finally become “today” — and there is no going back.

• Andrew Winston is one of the world’s leading thinkers on sustainable business strategy. His books include Green to Gold , The Big Pivot , and Net Positive . AndrewWinston

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Sustainability in business refers to a company's strategy and actions to reduce adverse environmental and social impacts resulting from business operations in a particular market. An organization’s sustainability practices are typically analyzed against environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics.

As we face irreversible changes in the Earth’s system, the threat of climate change has become too risky to ignore. The exceedance of environmental thresholds is raising concerns about domino effects in global natural systems and societies. Businesses are seeing both pressure and opportunity to establish sustainability goals if they haven’t already.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies continued to align to the United Nations General Assembly sustainable development goals (SDGs) set in 2015 and intended to be achieved by the year 2030. The SDGs establish universal goals that provide a roadmap for sustainability in business in target areas such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and climate change. 

Examples of sustainability in business:

• Improving energy management efficiency by using alternative power sources and carbon accounting.
• Deploying infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, preserves water resources and eliminates waste.
• Operating dynamic and efficient supply chains to empower a circular economy, encourage reuse, design out waste, promote sustainable consumption and protect natural resources.
• Enabling sustainable development by assessing risks and improving resiliency while adhering to external regulations and development goals.

Learn how both APM and ARM can enable faster decisions and resource application.

Register for TEI Report for IBM Robotic Process Automation

We’re doing business in an unpredictable world. Climate change, dwindling natural resources, and ever-increasing demands on our energy and food supply are disrupting business operations and supply chains in unexpected ways. It’s more important than ever for private and public organizations to fundamentally rethink the way they function. Transforming into a successful sustainable business requires new levels of resilience and agility, rooted in responsible practices that preserve our planet.

Sustainability is a business imperative and should be core to the strategy and operations of every business. The reasons for this are both ethical and financial:

• Employees are increasingly looking for mission-driven, purpose-led employers who care about the planet when deciding where to work. 71% of employees and employment seekers say that environmentally sustainable companies are more attractive employers. 1
• Consumers are willing to pay a premium for goods from brands that are environmentally responsible. 80% of consumers indicate sustainability is important to them. 2
• Governments, investors, employees and customers are demanding new levels of enterprise accountability, including action to address climate change.
• Many of the world’s top economies have or are developing corporate disclosure requirements around environmental impact, driving businesses to curb GHG emissions. 3
• The rise of ESG investment criteria and sustainable investing means that a sustainable business is inherently more attractive to the rising numbers of responsible investors. Investment in ESG assets may reach USD 53 trillion by 2025, representing over a third of global assets. 4

To safeguard our planet and our future, companies need to drive decarbonization, meet environmental regulatory requirements and compliance deadlines, and improve resource consumption. Those paving the way in sustainable business practices are embracing new business models to win customers, increase brand loyalty and uncover new opportunities to lower costs.

Companies that conscientiously integrate sustainable practices into their operations are seeing valuable business benefits. These include:

55% of consumers say environmental responsibility is very or extremely important when choosing a brand. 5 Being known as a sustainable business can improve your brand awareness and help you attract consumers that are favorably predisposed to companies actively engaged in sustainable practices.

In 2021, four out of five personal investors planned to act on sustainability or social responsibility factors in the following 12 months. 6

Governments will continue to expand regulations and corporate SDGs. Stay ahead of the curve by implementing sustainable solutions early on to meet these new regulatory requirements and continually capture, measure, benchmark and report on ESG performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in most companies. If that transformation is sustainable, you’re building a more resilient business that is ready for disruption and new opportunities.

Employees seeking purpose-driven employment want to work for sustainable and socially responsible companies. By building a reputation as a sustainable business, you can attract and retain the right employees for your company.

By implementing sustainable practices that reduce resource consumption and optimize operational efficiencies, today's change agents become tomorrow’s winners as they improve their bottom line. While efforts that have greater overall impact may be more costly to implement at the outset, the long-term gains will justify the investment.

Early leaders in enterprise sustainability are applying digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) data, blockchain and hybrid cloud to help operationalize sustainability at scale. In the process, many are uncovering opportunities to increase efficiencies while creating more motivated, inspired employees and more satisfied, loyal customers. The key to a successful sustainability strategy is to balance environmental drivers with key differentiators and market demands.

Step one to creating a sustainable strategy  is to ensure stakeholders have a clear and agreed-upon vision for the future state of the business. This might require outside help to get everyone on the same page. IBM Garage™ for sustainability experts can help your organization identify top challenges and opportunities, prioritize critical actions and measure outcomes against sustainability and business goals to realize results in weeks instead of months. 

Next, follow a timebound framework approach to implementing the sustainable vision across every aspect of your organization. Document everything in an environmental management system with defined roles, responsibilities and accountability.

Finally, start with concrete initiatives that can generate tangible, measurable results and show value. This will demonstrate the value of sustainability in business to obtain more buy-in, create momentum, and scale. 

There are five key focus areas to plan a resilient and profitable path forward:

The past decade has had the largest natural disaster impact on record. Organizations must factor the impact of climate change, which is causing extreme weather and climate events, into their business operations in a scalable and repeatable manner. Prepare for disruption with solutions that bring together multiple data sources, including proprietary, third-party, geospatial, weather and IoT data, with advanced analytics. Predict and plan for critical weather events to enable sustainable development and ensure business continuity. Reduce the operational costs and complexity of ESG compliance and reporting.

Global challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, security, privacy and resource management require businesses to ensure their infrastructure is designed and managed with resiliency in mind. By using intelligent asset management, monitoring and predictive maintenance, organizations can extend the life of assets, reduce downtime and maintenance costs, optimize maintenance, repair and operations inventories, reduce CO 2 emissions and eliminate waste. This will help them deliver against ESG goals with profitability.

Consumers are becoming more concerned about the traceability of the goods they purchase, and supply chain leaders are looking to invest in circular economies that encourage reuse. Blockchain solutions can provide greater supply chain visibility with up-to-the-minute inventory views and performance insights that help build trust and transparency, assuring authenticity from origin to consumption while reducing waste and lowering cost to serve. Tackle complex Scope 3 emissions challenges by establishing product provenance, and minimize logistics-related emissions by optimizing fulfillment and delivery with advanced AI.

Enabling clean electrification at scale will require leaders to come together in new ways to rethink how electrical systems operate and their role in a net-zero GHG emissions economy. Drive the transformation to decarbonization by enhancing grid efficiency, safety, reliability and resilience with intelligent asset management for energy and utilities. By implementing smart metering to better understand actual resource usage, you can keep critical assets and resources operating at maximum efficiency, improve equipment operations, lower costs and enhance services through automation.

Companies must embed sustainability into the fabric of their business to get the insights they need to operationalize at scale. This enables new business models and platforms to achieve sustainability goals, increase operational efficiencies, comply with regulatory requirements, expose innovation opportunities, and improve the customer experience while creating competitive advantage.

There are several challenges to overcome in the pursuit of becoming a truly sustainable business:

Customer readiness

While the mindset around sustainability is shifting, no business can afford to be left behind, and few can financially afford to be too far ahead of the appetite for sustainable offerings. Co-creating a sustainable future requires a deep understanding of your customers and having partners with the right relationships and ecosystems to bring them along on the journey.

Implementing sustainable business practices typically requires higher upfront investments. In the short term, it will often be cheaper to stick with the status quo. Some organizations will need help building an investment case to show how immediate investment will result in more durable profitability over the long run.

Systemic inertia

While sustainability is an important goal, it often isn’t seen as more important than other key priorities that may provide benefits sooner. Many businesses plan in ten-year increments, so while a 2050 commitment is good, it often isn’t enough to drive sufficient action in this decade, from a planning standpoint. It comes back to reframing risks as opportunities and building the case that acting on sustainability now is necessary to achieve future sustainability in business.

Lack of tools, insights and expertise

Being unprepared to develop a corporate sustainability vision, strategy and framework is a monumental risk. Companies may lack the ability to implement sustainable solutions or even know where to start. Sustainability in business is evolving and so are the answers. Every business needs an ecosystem of innovation partners to help them reinvent the world and create a sustainable future.

Insights from environmental data are changing business and societal behaviors, resulting in the emergence of the sustainable enterprise. Thus, sustainability in business is a megatrend that will continue to profoundly affect companies’ competitiveness and even survival in the market. Leaders are looking to harness the power of data, AI and blockchain to manage climate and environmental risk, optimize asset performance and resource utilization, drive decarbonization and build more sustainable supply chains.

IBM® continues its own sustainability journey, including conservation and renewable energy procurement, CO 2 emissions reduction, product and waste reuse and recycling, reduced water withdrawals and sustaining critical biodiversity. By driving continual improvements and setting new goals for environmental sustainability across its operations, IBM’s 30 years of environmental leadership can help you build sustainability solutions that are good for your business, your brand, and our planet.

Sund & Bælt is using AI and IoT to preserve and protect some of the world’s largest infrastructure, projecting lifespan extension for Great Belt bridge by 100 years, which would avoid 750,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

Farmer Connect is using IBM Food Trust® on blockchain to transparently connect coffee growers to the customers they serve, helping consumers support responsible and sustainable coffee production from farm to cup.

Yara International and IBM are using technology to advance sustainable food production and empower farmers with insights and unprecedented tools.

To help prepare Denmark for its transition to renewable energy, transmission system operator Energinet is using AI to better manage the grid and calculate the risk associated with taking equipment offline for maintenance.

The Climate Service (TCS) is on a mission to integrate climate data into financial decision making. TCS partnered with IBM Garage to rapidly scale their business to meet growing demand.

Accelerate your sustainability journey by planning a sustainable and profitable path forward with open, AI-powered solutions and platforms, and deep industry expertise from IBM.

Use ESG reporting to integrate data silos. Find new opportunities to embed sustainable practices across your operations and simplify GHG emissions reporting.

Optimize how you allocate resources to applications throughout your ecosystem with the IBM® Turbonomic® platform. Increase utilization, reduce energy costs and carbon emissions, and achieve continuously efficient operations by allowing applications to consume only what they need to perform.

Measure, monitor, predict and report on your organization’s environmental footprint while providing near real-time insights to accelerate sustainability initiatives and reduce impact to your business operations and supply chain.

Incorporate sustainability considerations into your operations and create more resilient, sustainable infrastructure by extending their life with intelligent asset management, monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Reduce waste, cost-to-serve and logistics-related emissions by optimizing fulfillment and delivery with trusted supply chain solutions that are powered by AI, backed by blockchain, and built on an open, hybrid-cloud platform.

Enhance grid efficiency, safety, reliability and resilience while streamlining maintenance and reducing outages with intelligent asset management and advanced climate and environmental intelligence for energy and utilities.

IBM Garage for sustainability experts can help you identify top sustainability challenges and opportunities, prioritize critical actions, and measure outcomes against business and sustainability goals to realize results quickly.

IBM is client zero in the battle for enterprise sustainability. Learn more about our history of environmental leadership and our commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Environmental risks are business risks. Learn how technology can help companies reduce their impact on the planet.

Sustainability has become central to business strategy and operations. Learn how organizations can set and achieve clear sustainability targets that deliver a competitive advantage.

IBM Turbonomic allows you to run applications seamlessly, continuously and cost-effectively to help achieve efficient app performance while lowering costs.

• “ Sustainability at a turning point ” IBM Institute for Business Value, May 2021
• “ Meet the 2020 consumers driving change ” Research Insights, June 2020
• “ The future of sustainability reporting standards ” (link resides outside ibm.com) EY, June 2021
• “ ESG assets may hit USD 53 trillion by 2025, a third of global AUM ” (link resides outside ibm.com) Bloomberg Intelligence, February 2021

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Why You Need Sustainability in Your Business Strategy

• 06 Nov 2019

In today’s ever-evolving world, debating whether to incorporate sustainability into your business strategy is no longer an option. Considering a values-driven approach when developing business strategies can be vital to long-term success.

Before getting into why sustainability is essential to successful business strategies, it's important to define what sustainability in business is.

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What Is Sustainability in Business?

In short, sustainability in business refers to the effect companies have on the environment or society.

A sustainable business strategy aims to positively impact one or both of those areas, thereby helping address some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Some of the global issues that sustainable business strategies help to address include:

• Climate change
• Income inequality
• Depletion of natural resources
• Human rights issues
• Fair working conditions
• Racial injustice
• Gender inequality

Although it may sound like it, sustainability in business is not purely altruistic. As Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson notes in the online course Sustainable Business Strategy , you can't use business to do good in the world if you're not doing well financially. Doing well and doing good are intertwined, and successful business strategies include both.

Many of today’s firms have adopted the triple bottom line , which suggests that organizations should focus on more than just profits, or the “bottom-line,” and also measure their environmental and social impact. These focuses can be referred to as “the three Ps,”: people, planet, and profit. Quite often, this sustainable approach to business ultimately boosts business performance.

Why Is Sustainability Important?

In addition to driving social and environmental change, sustainability initiatives can contribute to an organization's overall success. It may seem counterintuitive that spending more money on sustainable business practices can boost a company’s profitability, but studies show that the most sustainable companies are also the most profitable.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics are often used to determine how ethical and sustainable an organization is. According to McKinsey , companies with high ESG ratings consistently outperform the market in both the medium and long term. While sustainability strategies might be an investment in the short term, they can lead to long-term benefits.

Benefits of Sustainability in Business

1. you’ll protect your brand and mitigate risks.

Ending up on the front page because of a scandal is a CEO’s worst nightmare. Not only do improper practices damage an organization’s reputation and cost it customers, but dealing with a public relations disaster can divert valuable human and financial resources from the core business.

You don’t want to become the company that allowed an oil spill or forced employees to work in unsafe conditions. By instituting a sustainable strategy that protects the environment and your workers, you also protect yourself from any damaging incidents.

2. Being Purpose-Driven Is a Competitive Advantage

Sustainability doesn't detract from business goals, and infusing your company with purpose can help attract a motivated, skilled workforce that drives financial success . In a Facebook Live discussion , Henderson noted a recent study showing that 89 percent of executives believe an organization with shared purpose will have greater employee satisfaction. Additionally, 85 percent say they're more likely to recommend a company with strong purpose to others.

Making your company an organization that does good in the world—rather than just a place that provides a paycheck—can be a competitive advantage when attracting the best talent.

Related : HBS Professor Explores the Impact Purpose Can Have on Your Organization

3. There's a Growing Market for Sustainable Goods

A 2019 study found that 73 percent of global consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to lessen their negative impact on the environment, and sustainable product sales have grown by nearly 20 percent since 2014. Millennials in particular are more willing to pay more for products that contain sustainable ingredients or products that have social responsibility claims. If your organization commits to sustainable products and practices, it could gain market share by converting sustainability-minded customers and increasing sales.

4. Cooperative Action Can Drive Change

As an individual, it can feel overwhelming, isolating, or simply impossible to effect change in a meaningful way. That’s not the case when the most innovative, successful, and powerful companies are collaborating to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. While governments struggle to address public goods problems, purpose-driven companies working together to address these issues have experienced great success.

For example, palm oil is cheap, versatile, and found in about half of all packaged products, including soap, lipstick, and ice cream. But palm oil production has resulted in record greenhouse gas emissions and contributed to climate change.

In light of this, consumer goods producer Unilever committed to only using palm oil from certified sustainable sources in 2008. The organization cooperated with its competitors—as well as governments, NGOs, and indigenous peoples’ organizations—to lead an industry-wide adoption of sustainable palm oil. As a result, Unilever continues to be a thriving organization, and the world has reaped the environmental benefits of sustainable palm oil harvesting practices.

The Value of Sustainability

Sustainability doesn’t mean sacrificing profits or putting success on the backburner. Instead, it has become a crucial element to any organization’s successful strategy. A business that doesn't factor in sustainability risks is less successful in several measures, including profitability, growth, and employee retention.

By integrating sustainability into your business strategy , you can find success because, rather than in spite, of sustainability.

Do you want to take a more values-driven approach to business? Explore our three-week online course Sustainable Business Strategy and learn how organizations can succeed financially while also playing a role in solving some of the world’s most pressing problems.

This post was upated on March 22, 2021. It was originally published on November 6, 2019.

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The Future of Consumption

How Technology, Sustainability and Wellbeing will Transform Retail and Customer Experience

• Open Access
• © 2024

You have full access to this open access Book

• Kristina Bäckström 0 ,
• Carys Egan-Wyer 1 ,
• Emma Samsioe 2

Department of Service Studies & Centre for Retail Research, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Department of Business Administration & Centre for Retail Research, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

• Discusses future trends in consumption, particularly the impact those trends will have on the ways we shop and much more
• Combines academic and practitioner perspectives on future consumption trends
• Highlights what retailers are already doing to prepare for the consumption of the future
• This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

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Table of contents (24 chapters)

Front matter, introduction: the future of consumption.

• Kristina Bäckström, Carys Egan-Wyer, Emma Samsioe

The Intersection of Sustainability and Technology in the Context of the Digital Marketplace

• Hela Hassen, Precious Akponah

Smart Signage: Toward a Transformative Model that Effectively Generates Consumer-Product Relationships

• Franklin Velasco, Hanna Marriott

Into the Metaverse: Technological Advances Shaping the Future of Consumer and Retail Marketing

• Hossain Shahriar

Consumer Trust and Platformised Retail Personalisation

• Stefan Larsson, Kashyap Haresamudram

Friend or Foe? How Buy-Now-Pay-Later Is Seeking to Change Traditional Consumer-Retailer Relationships in the UK

• Ruffin Relja, Anita Lifen Zhao, Philippa Ward

The Future of Grocery Retail

• Rickard Sandahl

Toward a Packaging-Free Society: A Historical Journey of Institutionalization and the Way Forward

• Ozan Ağlargöz, Feyza Ağlargöz

Trending Seaweed: Future Opportunities in Retail?

• Cecilia Fredriksson, Annabell Merkel, Filippa Säwe

Grocery Retailers’ Approaches to Discussion on the Food Waste Issue on Social Media

• Ulla-Maija Sutinen, Elina Närvänen

Sustainable Consumption in Taiwan and China: Drivers and Impediments

Digitalization: a potential tool for sustainable consumption.

• Matthias Lehner, Jessika Luth Richter, Oksana Mont

The Challenge of Overproduction and Overconsumption

• Gabriella Wulff

Create Tomorrow’s Vintage

• Kevin Gelsi, Sandya Lang

The Future of Wellbeing: Value Creation in Digital Mental Health Services

• Alisa Minina Jeunemaître

No Cash, No Coins, No Cards, But You: Biohacking the Future of Payments

• Vitor Lima, Russell Belk
• consumer behaviour
• sustainability
• artificial intelligence
• machine learning

About this book

This open access book presents three future consumption trends—technology, sustainability, and wellbeing—and discusses what impact those trends will have on the ways we shop. 

What will be important to the consumers of the future? And how will their retail experiences look and feel? Will technology, sustainability, and wellbeing trends fundamentally change how we consume? And how should retail managers respond to these trends in order to provide the customer experiences of the future? Blending academic perspectives with reflections from innovative retailers, this book explores all these questions and more.  

Essential reading for retail managers who want to know how future consumption trends will affect the industry, this book also benefits students and researchers of retail and consumption who want to better understand how these interdependent fields are linked. 

“I really must recommend this book, which is an insightful and topical book for all practitioners and scholars seeking answers and new perspectives on future challenges within retail and marketing. Never has the retail industry been challenged from so many different directions and it is important to be prepared for the changes that are coming. This book goes through the major trends in the retail industry: the development of technology, sustainability challenges and, finally, the future customer’s demands for better experiences. So be prepared, be updated. Read the book and you will have a huge competitive advantage for the future.” (Martin Moström, CEO, Retail House, Sweden) 

“This book is a valuable collection ofchapters by leading researchers and practitioners from a variety of fields and perspectives, exploring a range of phenomena that are likely to transform the future of consumption. It is both multifaceted and clearly structured to reflect the three key trends of technology, sustainability and well-being. These trends cover phenomena ranging from more established technologies such as digital signage to those with more uncertain trajectories such as the metaverse, from the prospects of seaweed to the challenges of reducing food waste, and from individual consumer wellbeing to digital mental health ecosystems. The book shows how each of these major trends, individually and in combination, is contributing to shape consumer experiences and retailing. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the future of consumption and is therefore highly recommended.” (Professor Johan Hagberg, University of Gothenburg, Sweden) 

“Too often we take retailing and consumption for granted. It is only when things go wrong (ranging from pandemics to global economic and geopolitical challenges) that we see how central these multi-faceted activities have become to the functioning and evolution of society. In this book, authors drawn from a wide range of backgrounds provide fascinating contemporary perspectives on the nexus between retailing and consumption. The rich variety of topics is compelling, and the insights and implications presented will prove instructive to students, academics and practitioners alike.” (Jonathan Reynolds, Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK)  

“The core purpose of retailing is to satisfy the needs and desires of consumers.  It is therefore essential that retailers keep abreast of the evolving values, expectations and behaviours of contemporary consumers.  We are in a phase of significant change in the socio-economic environment, so the need to look forward and explore new relationships andinteractions between retailers and consumers is more critical than ever.”

This edited anthology brings together an important set of insights relevant to the future of consumption and retailing.  The core to successful retailing remains the delivery of an excellent customer experience.  The need for retailing to deliver not just the ‘traditional’ values associated with products and services but to respond to important emergent themes around sustainability and wellbeing, and to consider how technology contributors to (or detracts from) delivering customer experiences based on these values will shape retailer-consumer relationships in the years ahead. (Steve Burt, Professor of Retail Marketing, Institute for Retail Studies, University of Stirling, UK) 

“The retail industry is constantly evolving, always with the fast-changing needs of the customers at heart. This book gives a great overview of how future trends within technology, sustainability and well-being can impact the development of retail. No matter if you’re a retailer or a student, it’s an interesting read with inspiring examples and best-practises that can inspire to action – both for businesses and consumers.” (Jesper Brodin, CEO Ingka Group I IKEA, Sweden)

Editors and Affiliations

Department of service studies & centre for retail research, lund university, lund, sweden.

Kristina Bäckström, Emma Samsioe

Department of Business Administration & Centre for Retail Research, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Carys Egan-Wyer

About the editors

Kristina Bäckström is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Service Studies & Centre for Retail Research, Lund University.

Carys Egan-Wyer is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Business Administration & Centre for Retail Research, Lund University.

Emma Samsioe is an Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department of Service Studies & Centre for Retail Research, Lund University.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : The Future of Consumption

Book Subtitle : How Technology, Sustainability and Wellbeing will Transform Retail and Customer Experience

Editors : Kristina Bäckström, Carys Egan-Wyer, Emma Samsioe

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33246-3

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Business and Management , Business and Management (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2024

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-33245-6 Published: 05 October 2023

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-33248-7 Published: 05 October 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-33246-3 Published: 04 October 2023

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XXIX, 383

Number of Illustrations : 8 b/w illustrations, 18 illustrations in colour

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Strathclyde involved in pioneering research hubs for sustainable manufacturing

16 May 2024

Strathclyde is leading a new manufacturing hub pioneering the use of advanced technologies such as robotics and AI for the sustainable production of medicines.

The MediForge Hub, led by CMAC – a world-leading medicines manufacturing research centre – aims to transform the development and manufacturing process by achieving a 60% reduction in raw material use and the reduction of waste.

The University is also a partner in the Manufacturing Research Hub in Resource-Enabled Sustainable Circular Automation Manufacturing (RESCu-M). Led by the University of Birmingham, the hub aims to use advances in AI, robotics and intelligent automation to create a new sustainable circular manufacturing ecosystem across sectors such as batteries, energy and medical devices.

Medicine production

The hubs are among five supported by the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ‘Manufacturing research hubs for a sustainable future’ programme, with each receiving £11M. Partner contributions, cash and in-kind, bring the total support committed to the new hubs to just short of £100M.

Working with industry partners, the researchers will also explore different products’ pathways to manufacture, including production scale-up and integration within the wider industrial system.

Co-designed with industry, the MediForge programme will create a unique cyber-physical research infrastructure to drive the digital transformation of Chemistry, Manufacture and Control (CMC) approaches.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital twins, and collaborative robotics together with state-of-the-art process technologies, will support all stages of medicine production.

Digital solutions

CMC is a key element in ensuring medicines are safe and of consistent high quality, but traditional approaches can be inefficient and costly. By developing digital solutions, MediForge will tackle some of the challenges faced by pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Accelerating the development of new, sustainable products and processes mean the sector will be better able to respond to the needs of patients by producing medicines faster, while addressing rising healthcare costs, medicines shortages from fragile global supply chains, and the impacts of the climate crisis.

The seven-year award is in collaboration with the University of Leeds, Imperial College London, the University of Sheffield, and Glasgow School of Art.

Professor Alastair Florence, MediForge Project Lead and Director of CMAC, said:

MediForge represents a significant step towards creating the technologies, know-how and future leaders to deliver access to affordable, safe, and sustainable medicines.

“The team are committed to developing innovative solutions that can accelerate patient access to cost-effective new treatments, that can allow more agile responses to medicines shortages or pandemics and, though addressing sustainability at each stage, we can ensure that making medicines does not cost the Earth.

“With its commitment to excellence and innovation, CMAC's MediForge initiative will transform the landscape of medicine manufacturing, paving the way for a healthier, sustainable, and more resilient future.”

Professor Winifred Ijomah of the Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management, and the Strathclyde Lead for the RESCu-M project, said:

The RESCU-M hub provides a huge opportunity to advance net zero by optimising value retention processes such as remanufacturing, repair and recycling.

Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Vice-Chancellor & Principal of the University of Strathclyde, said: “At Strathclyde we are committed to seeking sustainable answers to global challenges and the work of these two pioneering Hubs, one of which we are leading, is testament to that.

"The Hubs will be informed by basic research and we will bring our recognised leading approach to translating research outputs to industry applicable solutions.”

Alan Mak, Minister for Industry and Economic Security, said: “Thanks to our Advanced Manufacturing Plan, we’re helping businesses take advantage of the twin transitions of digitalisation and net zero, along with tax cuts, faster grid connections and more, helping grow the green industries of the future.

“This investment will help keep the UK at the cutting edge of research in key sectors like semiconductors and medicine and help secure a sustainable future for our innovative manufacturing industry.”

Sustainable production

UK Government Minister for Scotland, Donald Cameron, said: "Scotland has always been at the forefront of science, innovation and technology and this new £11 million funding from the UK Government, through UKRI, will help maintain this. This is an exciting time for this sector as we look to harness AI in helping the sustainable production of medicines and reducing waste."

EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Charlotte Deane said: “With their focus on innovation and sustainability the advances made by the hubs will benefit specific sectors, the wider manufacturing sector and economy, as well the environment.”

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