Business and Organisations for Sustainable Societies (BOSS) research group
This sustainability centre is part of NBS's Sustainability Centres Community, representing business schools from around the world. Find out more.
Business and Organisations for Sustainable Societies (BOSS) research group
Leeds, United Kingdom
Sustainability Research Institute
University of Leeds
Mission
We, the 'Business and Organisations for Sustainable Societies' (BOSS) group, are a trans-disciplinary group of researchers, who are focused on critically evaluating the role of businesses and organisations and how they can incorporate sustainability in their systems, including their activities and throughout their supply chains. In our work, we:
- Examine the implications of the approaches that businesses and organisations adopt in the global North and South, working on both local and global issues, and
- Analyse the interface between businesses and policy-makers, consumers and other stakeholders.
We have expertise in a wide range of sectors, for instance, the built environment, food and drink, agriculture, electronics, extractive industries, further and higher education, health care, retail, sports and textiles. As a group we seek to develop theories and approaches which enable businesses and organisations to tackle the challenges of sustainable development in a coherent, systematic, holistic and robust way.
Main Activities
Applied research with stakeholders including industry. Research strands:
- Sustainability and natural resource extraction which has the Alcoa and Democratic Governance Facility projects and linking to work of "Environmental change and sustainable development" group, CiPEG and ESSI (Palaeo@Leeds).
- Finance, enterprise and sustainability, which has the EP7 and Mistra grants and part of a ESRC Enterprise Research Centre bid (£3.6 million) and linking to work of "Economics and Economics and Policy for Sustainability‟ group, ICAS/Africa College, LUBS and European industrial networks.
- Sustainability voluntary standards, codes and supply chains, which has TSB and ESRC projects with links to "Environmental change and sustainable development group", Africa College and standards development organisations such as ISO and FTO. This has linkages with organisations such as the Co-operative Group and M&S.
- Sustainability assessment and reporting, which has Mistra and consultancy funding with links to the Centre for International Business in LUBS and organisation such as Journal of Cleaner Production, BMW, Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative.
- Organisational change towards sustainability, which has WUN funding and part of proposals with links to the "Social and political dimensions of sustainability" group, Socio-technical Design Centre (LUBS) and links to key Australian Universities.
Teaching:
- BA Environment and Business
- MSc Sustainability (Business, Environment and Corporate Responsibility)
- MSc Sustainability (Environmental Consultancy and Project Management)
Doctoral training on sustainability and organizational activities.
Organizational Structure
- Paul Abbott, Academic Fellow
- Laura Babbs, Knowledge Transfer Fellow
- Dr Ralf Barkemeyer, Lecturer: Corporate Social Responsibility
- Claire Bastin, Academic Fellow
- Prof Andy Gouldson, Professor of Sustainability Research
- Dr Alice Owen, Lecturer: Business Sustainability & Stakeholder Engagement
- Dr Sally Russell, Associate Professor: Business, Organisations and Sustainability
- Dr Rory Sullivan, Senior Research Fellow
- Dr Anne Tallontire, Senior Lecturer: Business, Environment & Corporate Responsibility
- Dr Paul Upham, Senior Research Fellow
- Dr James Van Alstine, Lecturer: Environmental Policy
- Professor William Young, Professor of Sustainability and Business
Contact
Pasi Heikkurinen
Director of BOSS research group
Director of BOSS research group