Understanding sustainability requires a focus on how people live, how they acquire, use and dispose of goods and services. Crucially, research is now focusing on how innovations can actually promote a much more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

At Alliance Manchester Business School, we challenge orthodox thinking of sustainability by looking beyond individual actors, such as the consumer and the firm and look at how these interactions configure societies.

• In response to the pandemic members of the Sustainable Consumption Institute and associated researchers have written a report to assess the possible acceleration of the transition to sustainable consumption and production.

• Jonatan Pinkse, Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, has shared his thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on climate change. Writing for the Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment (GRONEN), Professor Pinkse – Director of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at Alliance MBS – asks whether COVID-19 will change how we think about climate change.

• Lorraine Wolter is an MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship graduate and the Founder of sustainable clothing start-up, Light and Air. Here she talks about her experiences of studying in Manchester and the opportunities available to her as a budding entrepreneur.

• After completing the MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship course in 2020, Jonas Singer is now a Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Vector Homes – a Manchester-based company that is developing sustainable, modular and smart housing.

• Carrying out a research project on the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry during her degree has led to Yukti Bhardwaj co-founding her own start-up in India.

• ‘Made in Manchester’ eco-entrepreneur Vlad Mukhachev is putting his green credentials to the test by delivering his newly expanded Wrapit range to customers by bike himself in order to reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

• If you are motivated to contribute to society, then the MSc Management degree course at Alliance MBS is ideal for you. No previous knowledge or experience in business is required as this degree will teach you how to pursue a career that couples financial success with ethical business practices.

• How can accountants integrate climate change risk and sustainable decision making into their financial reporting? A paper co-authored by Professor Brendan O’Dwyer (with Professor Jeffrey Unerman from Royal Holloway and Professor Jan Bebbington from Birmingham) addressed this very question.

• Alliance Manchester Business School featured prominently in a Financial Times article published this week on the rise of sustainable MBAs. Xavier Duran, the MBA Programmes Director spoke to Andrew Jack about the trend toward more sustainable business education.