Sustainability for people and planet

'Where we live next', explores environmental sustainability through the lens of place and place-sensitive policy making. It examines how visible different places – and the people and cultures within them – are to decision makers when they make decisions about the environment, and how policymaking in this area could be strengthened.

The programme builds on the evidence from the Academy’s 'Where we live now' programme, which explored what places mean to people and why, and what place-sensitive policymaking might look like in relation to productivity. We are using our multidisciplinary SHAPE evidence base and working with policymakers and experts to co-develop a set of principles for place-sensitive policymaking on environmental sustainability. We will then explore how to apply the principles to policy planning and decision-making processes in practice. The themes that we will explore are:

• The social, cultural, and educational factors affecting just transition
• The voices, spaces, and scales of environmental governance
• Multidisciplinary insights on place and the delivery of a sustainable and productive economy
• The relationship between businesses and communities in local sustainability approaches.

Our Net Zero programme is exploring the role of SHAPE disciplines (social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy) in policymaking which aims to deliver on the UK's commitment to net zero. Our work to date has considered how collaboration across sectors (public, third sector, business and local communities) can foster shared commitments to goals, values and programmes to deliver net zero as part of a sustainable future. It used a wide range of methods to engage a diversity of people around the UK, and emphasised three areas for further consideration for policy interventions or initiatives:

• Co-benefits: Policy initiatives that effectively balance the range of impacts resulting from net-zero policies on different communities.
• Public acceptance: Policy interventions that take account of the factors motivate people and organisations to make decisions in support of or against net-zero objectives.
• Multi-level support: The types of policy support that enables people and institutions at different levels of society to accelerate the transition to net zero.

Alongside these, this initial research indicated a range of cross-cutting elements to consider: the importance of place (see below); the relationships between people, communities, institutions, and different modes of governance; the connections between different levels of governance; methods of engagement and communication; questions of inclusion and values; economic and financial considerations; and the types of skills and knowledge needed.

In 2023, further research will begin to build a clearer picture of the evidence around policies and initiatives that are supporting the transition to net zero.

The Future of the Corporation programme examined the purpose of business and its role in society, led by Professor Colin Mayer FBA, Professor of Management at the Saїd Business School. In its four years of work prior to its conclusion in 2021, it combined research from a range of academic disciplines with insight from senior business and policy leaders. In 2018, it highlighted trust in business and its impact on people and the environment along with globalisation and technological disruption as drivers of a shifting view of business. The research suggested a need to develop a new, more human framework for the corporation around well-defined and aligned purposes, complemented by ethical cultures and commitments to trustworthiness. Professor Mayer drew together the research and defined the purpose of business as "producing profitable solutions from the problems of people and planet, and not profiting from creating problems."

The programme produced a set of principles for purposeful business in 2019 and built on these with extensive work involving a wide range of stakeholders to develop policy and practice in support of those principles. Beyond its conclusion in 2021, the programme has continued to have an impact and the Academy is supporting follow-up initiatives looking at how purposeful business is taught in UK business schools, and how the concepts it developed can be translated into law and regulation.