Sustainable Business and Organisation

Governance for Tomorrow 

is a cross-university research collaboration between CEEDR and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion. It is supported by the leading luxury group Kering.

This multi-phase project investigates new and alternative governance models in luxury fashion. Its activities include research and the development of a prototype Stewardship Board with a diverse group of changemakers.

CEEDR is leading the research phase. The team is conducting in-depth interviews with recognised leaders in sustainability, fashion, and governance. Our work informs the Stewardship Board’s activities. It will also contribute to academic articles and other outputs.

CEEDR staff involved: Dr Andrea Werner, Prof Fergus Lyon, Dr Patrick Elf

The Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) is now into a second phase following the completion of the initial five year programme. Work is continuing to explore visions of where people can flourish within the ecological constraints of a finite planet.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funds the project. Middlesex University researchers are exploring alternative business and investment models for resilience, sustainability, and competitiveness.

Projects examine:

• sustainable purpose in business
• innovations that support biodiversity
• the circular economy
• good work
• democratic processes in enterprises
• the role of business in activism and the promotion of sustainable behaviour.

Professor Fergus Lyon, Deputy Director of CUSP and theme lead for the Middlesex University research projects in CUSP, said:

"At a time when there is growing concern about business and the environment, this project will challenge both existing research and business practice about what it means to be both prosperous and sustainable. There is a need for greater understanding of alternative ways of doing business and alternative investment and banking."

The centre is led by the University of Surrey’s Professor Tim Jackson. It works with a range of academic and non-academic partners.

The CUSP work programme has five core themes:

• (M)eaning: moral framings of the good life
• (A)rts: the role of arts and culture in developing visions of prosperity
• (P)olitical: political and organisational dimensions of sustainable prosperity
• (S)ocial: social and psychological understandings of the good life
• (S)ystems: systems analysis used to explore narratives of sustainable prosperity.

Detailed information about the MAPSS-Framework is available on the CUSP themes page.

Funded by: Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC)

There is growing interest in paying farmers for the environmental benefits they provide. Businesses are creating opportunities linked to carbon capture, payments for wildlife areas, and crops that reduce the risks of flooding and pollution.

Middlesex University will explore these new natural capital markets. The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) and the Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF) will support the work.

The study will examine emerging natural capital markets and identify the opportunities and risks for farmers across the UK. It will support small and medium-sized family farms. It will also consider how smaller, tenanted, and new entrant farmers can gain access to natural capital markets.

Commissioned by: Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

In 2018, CEEDR researchers joined a cross-university research consortium that secured a grant of almost £450,000 from the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The 2.5-year project investigated creative entrepreneurship and design in micro and small fashion enterprises (MSEs). It considered their potential to support a more sustainable fashion industry.

The research analysed existing and new business models and practices in the fashion sector. It examined how these models balance environmental, social, cultural, and economic considerations.

The project identified barriers and opportunities for intervention. Its aim was to develop alternative business support mechanisms for sustainability. These mechanisms could inform fashion businesses at both small and larger scales.

The academic team represented three leading research centres and universities. Their complementary expertise provided a cross-disciplinary approach to research on fashion innovation and sustainable prosperity.

London College of Fashion at the University of the Arts London (UAL) led the project. It involved:

• UAL’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF)
• Middlesex University’s Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR)
• the Open University’s Department of Design.

The CEEDR team included Dr Andrea Werner, Prof Fergus Lyon, Dr Ian Vickers, and Dr Patrick Elf.

The project web page presents selected outputs. These include a guidebook, case studies, and a policy note.

Further reading

• Lyon, F. (2021) Sustainable fashion designers inspiring policy change: how enterprises can be supported for a sustainable future. Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity
• Werner, A., Elf, P., Lyon, F. (2021) The purpose of fashion: How sustainable design entrepreneurs challenge economic growth paradigms. The Cultural and Creative Industries: Pathways Beyond Economic Growth Seminar Series.

Funded by: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Researchers from Middlesex University, the University of Surrey, Glasgow Caledonian University, and Shared Assets are examining how social enterprises can introduce innovations in healthy and sustainable food. Middlesex University leads the project, with the University of Surrey as co-lead.

The £380,000 project grant is part of the Transforming UK Food Systems programme.

The scale of change needed to improve UK food systems requires new ideas, organisational models, and collaborative approaches. These approaches must engage individuals and communities in meaningful ways.

Existing top-down approaches to sustainable food provision and diet have not resolved the crises in dietary health and sustainable food production.

The research focuses on social enterprises that trade with a core social and environmental purpose. It explores and strengthens their contribution to more inclusive, sustainable, and healthy food systems.

These organisations include social enterprises that provide:

• community growing spaces and distribution schemes
• leisure and fitness centres
• children’s nurseries
• other community-based services.

The project works closely with six partner social enterprises:

• Community Transport Glasgow, addressing access to affordable food
• Cultivate Powys, supporting local growing and social prescribing
• London Early Years Foundation, delivering a nursery chef initiative
• Selby Trust London, operating a food and community hub
• Social Adventures Salford, supporting therapeutic growing and a local food hub
• Windmill Hill City Farm Bristol, providing a growing space and community hub.

The research findings will inform the co-design of resources and toolkits. These resources will support the expansion or replication of successful models and innovations. They will also promote the sharing of good practice across the country.

The project will examine barriers and limiting factors, including how they can best be addressed. It will produce good practice guides for social enterprises and other organisations. Policy briefings will also address local, regional, and national policymaking.

For more information, visit Social enterprise as a catalyst for food system transformation.

Funded by: the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE)

This project explores how social enterprises and other purposeful businesses can strengthen rural economies and address challenges faced by communities.

Previous research shows that social enterprises could help rural economies respond to:

• the transition to a greener economy
• recovery from Covid-19
• Brexit
• community health and well-being needs.

The project addresses a core NICRE theme: how to make rural economies more resilient, engaged, smart, and productive.

The project will use existing data and interviews with key informants to:

• identify the different types of social enterprise found in rural areas across the UK, while recognising their diverse forms
• assess rural social enterprises over time, including their business performance and contributions to rural communities
• examine their ambitions, strategies, innovation activity, collaborations, challenges, and support needs
• provide evidence that can inform policy and practice
• support the expansion of social enterprises and their influence on other enterprises, with the potential to create economic, social, and environmental benefits for rural communities.

Supporting Social Enterprises and the Low Carbon Economy

This project was a partnership between Middlesex University’s Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research and Social Enterprise East Midlands (SEEM).

Impact highlights: The project made a strong contribution to understanding the environmental social enterprise sector through market research and related academic outputs. Publications included an article in a 3* ABS-rated journal.

Other outcomes were not fully achieved. Contributing factors included changes in staffing and priorities within the company partner during organisational downsizing and transition.

Objectives                 

• To develop the market knowledge and capabilities needed to grow the social enterprise sector in the East Midlands through environmental support services
• To support SEEM’s sustainability by providing evidence and strategic intelligence about the environmental market
• To develop SEEM services for environmental social enterprises
• To increase the rate of environmental social enterprise start-ups and growth.

Results for the Company Partner

• Social Enterprise East Midlands (SEEM) is the regional infrastructure body for social enterprise in the East Midlands. It supports and represents the movement, informs regional and national policy, and promotes best practice. Its services cover start-up and growth support, finance and investment, marketing and promotion, procurement, and social and environmental impact measurement
• The KTP coincided with the end of SEEM’s three-year core funding contract with the RDA. This contract supported delivery of the social enterprise strategy in the East Midlands. SEEM therefore needed to identify alternative income sources to ensure continuity. Ongoing organisational changes affected progress, including three changes to the company supervisor role
  Completing the market research and identifying training and support opportunities were important achievements. This work produced extensive information about environmental social enterprises in the region, their challenges, and their support needs
• The KTP contributed to the company’s strategy by developing its understanding of environmental opportunities and training and support needs. SEEM and its staff gained a better understanding of supply and demand in the environmental enterprise market. They also gained knowledge and resources to inform their response to market opportunities
• The KTP generated knowledge, but changes to staff and strategic priorities made it harder to develop products and services. The work of the Associate and the contribution of the Knowledge Base Partner embedded benefits and transferred knowledge.

These benefits included training materials, such as slides, trainer notes, and exercises. They also included a long-term plan to support a sectoral cluster.

The work produced educational benefits by extending knowledge, skills, and expertise within the community. It also addressed environmental issues relating to land, water, and air.

Impacts on the Associate

Training and personal development completed in addition to the KTP residential course included:

• attendance at the International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC), including the co-presentation of a paper
• a Personal Impact course at RADA
• an ecological facilitation course at Schumacher College
• volunteering at Schumacher College after the KTP, completing a course on biomimicry, and working on a Lapland husky farm.

Results for the Knowledge Base Partner

• Staff development benefited from experience of working with social enterprise support infrastructure. Staff also developed a body of knowledge about environmental social enterprise through survey data and qualitative case studies
  Teaching benefited from useful case study material
  Publications and the dissemination of results had a high impact
  Outputs included four conference or workshop presentations
  Outputs also included three publications: an article in a 3* ABS-ranked journal, a book chapter, and one TSRC/BRASS publication.

EIT Climate-KIC Climate Innovation Insights on the Circular Economy

The European Institute of Technology Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (EIT Climate-KIC) is Europe’s largest public-private partnership dedicated to business innovation related to climate.

Climate Innovation Insights combine case studies of recent innovation with analytical articles. They draw lessons from different sources to support understanding among EIT Climate-KIC and its partners.

Dr Geraldine Brennan of CEEDR is the Series Editor for Innovation Insights on the Circular Economy.

In 2017, the second series, Accelerating the transition to sustainable production systems, launched at the international Productronica 2017 trade fair in Germany.

Series 2 included nine case studies and one summary paper co-authored by Dr Brennan. It showed ways to develop and sustain cross-sector collaboration to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

The Insights examined current practice. They also described the strategies and approaches used by EIT Climate-KIC partners from different sectors and European regions. The work identified challenges and lessons from these activities.

EIT Climate-KIC Climate Innovation Insights Series 3 is currently in development.

#circulareconomy #climatechange #SPSinsights @ClimateKIC

Client: ESRC Third Sector Research Centre

This research examined how environmentally-motivated social enterprises sought to increase their positive impact during the transition to a more sustainable economy and society.

Evidence from case studies was used to explore different forms of enterprise growth. It also showed how enterprises contribute to economic, environmental, and social value.

The research introduced a typology of three approaches. These approaches explain strategies based on conventional ideas of growth and alternative ways of creating social and environmental value:

• Small and Beautiful niches, which deepen impact through close engagement with specific communities or localities
• Green Knowledge Economy enterprises, which seek wider impact by developing, sharing, and selling knowledge
• Green Collar Army enterprises, which focus on creating employment.

Each category requires strategies that respond to the tensions and challenges of combining enterprise methods with social and environmental goals.

• Vickers, I. and Lyon, F (2013) 'Beyond green niches? Growth strategies of environmentally-motivated social enterprises' International Small Business Journal, Vol. 31, pp. 1-22 or ESRC Third Sector Research Centre Working paper 108
• Vickers, I. (2013) 'Environmentally-motivated social enterprise: Origins, contributions and opportunities', in M. Anastasiadis (ed.)  ECO-WISE  Social Enterprises as Sustainable Actors, EHV Europäischer Hochschulverlag, Bremen.
• Vickers, I. (2010) Social enterprise and the environment: a review of the literature, ESRC Third Sector Research Centre, Working Paper No. 22
• Vickers,  I., Vaze P., Corr, L., Kasparova, E. and  Lyon, F.  (2009) SMEs in a low carbon economy, Enterprise Directorate, Department of Business Innovation and Skills