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The academic keynote speaker was Professor Bobby Banerjee, a renowned sustainability academic and critical scholar. His keynote sought to question how ‘sustainability’ as a concept was framed. In particular, he asked the audience to consider how to resolve a situation where two opinions are contradictory but both may be considered ‘correct’, depending on your perspective. He then focused on two key issues within the sustainability debate: uncertainty avoidance and short-termism, pointing out that these issues exist at the individual, the organisational, and the institutional level. He concluded by reconceptualising the question ‘How do we make economic growth environmentally and socially sustainable’ to ‘How do we make a low environmental impact lifestyle, reduced consumption and standard of living among wealthier populations, economically sustainable?’

The academic papers that were presented following the keynote touched on issues of ecocentric dynamic capabilities, green HRM, drivers (or lack thereof) for carbon reduction outcomes, the role of the voluntary sector and – separately – the role of spirituality and religion in contributing to behavioural change relating to sustainability, a psychoanalysis of green consumption, and issues around embedding a sustainability management system.

Following this a practitioner panel including Victoria Barby from Climate 2020 and Michael Groves from Codbod Technologies brought an applied perspective and ensured that academic discussions, musings, and ideas were grounded in business problems and contexts. The concluding keynote by Dr Craig Mackenzie was aptly entitled ‘Sanding Against the Grain’, as Craig shared his experiences of embedding sustainability in organisations where other considerations such as financial returns have dominated.

The organising committee of Sarah Ivory, George Ferns, and Onya Idoko would like to thank the academics who supported the conference – Dr Kenneth Amaeshi and Dr Adam Bock, as well as all the presenters, keynotes, practitioners and attendees. We look forward to holding the conference again next year and continuing to develop a network of sustainability scholars and a hub of sustainability thinking.