We find ourselves now at these critical points in human history we are pushing up against the limits of the planet in a way that is by definition not sustainable.

The decisions that we make in the next decade are going to be incredibly important to address the ecological, but also the social crisis that we face.

If we are to get to Net Zero and sustainable development and reorder the relationship between nature, society and economies, business is an absolutely critical component. it's the cause of, but also solution to this mess that we find ourselves in.

The idea behind a School of Enterprise and the Environment is helping private enterprise and public enterprise identify the things that they have to change to address the climate change problem. Basically, it is an industrial revolution and we're trying to advise on that revolution.

The school is a bit of a haven for those of us who share this passion and this interest, and who want to apply the best and the most rigorous tools of academic inquiry to unearth new knowledge that can help us.

So, we are always asking: what's the application of those research? how can we innovate? how can we change the system? how can we do better? what are the tools that we need? As well as ensuring that our research gets out of the university and into the hands and minds of the people you need to use it.

So, we have people working in water, in energy, in finance, in law, in food and infrastructure all of which has this collective focus on thinking about enterprises and sustainable development.

The Smith School's work is extremely important because it is striving to address the climate change issues, the environmental challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. You can really make a change if you drive these ideas into a practical reality. No single discipline can solve these problems alone, so we need to collaborate. 

So for example the Smith School’s work on water security in some of the most fragile areas of the planet has already helped millions of people and is on course to help possibly even 100 million people. And then of course our students are critical in this.

We launched this new masters in Sustainability, Enterprise and Environment which tries to be realistic rather than the idealistic about the world and we give students the broad knowledge base and skills that they need to go out into the world and lead impactful change.

It takes a systems level view of really looking at the complex economic ecological and social systems that we operate in.

All the research in the world is only effective if it's then implemented in terms of what people do, how they think about things, are they invest.

What we're trying to do is to define best practice, to define the future of sustainable finance and investment. But we’re also trying to translate that, and so we spend a lot of time working with practitioners to turn theory into practice.

Our links span industry, government, public enterprise, policymakers, non-governmental organizations. so, we can really take our research to the people who need to adopt it.

I had a career in finance it was a lucrative career, but I never felt anything at the end of the day. what I do now I feel something.

Research is meant to change lives, seeing the impact of research translating into the policy documents that's very exciting to me.

Honestly, I think this is the challenge of our time, we need some really committed people who can be inspired and in turn can inspire others, and that's the central we're trying to create.

So, if you're listening to this and you think you have something to contribute to the Smith School, please let us know