The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business is funded by the Rubin Foundation Charitable Trust – a Foundation run by the owners of Pentland Group plc.

Pentland Group plc is the owner of many of the world’s most iconic sports, outdoor and fashion brands including Speedo, Canterbury and Berghaus.

The Pentland Centre was established in 2015, and on funding the Centre, Stephen Rubin said: "Having worked in the area of sustainability for a very long time, it seems to me that there is still so much short-termism in corporate life.

"We have to realise that in the world we are living in, we cannot endlessly waste resources. We need to lay the foundation stones for those generations that follow.

"It is my hope that the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business can utilise academic and practical insights to scale up business solutions for sustainability, and to enable business leaders to make more courageous decisions."

In 2020, at the completion of the first five-year phase of the Pentland Centre’s work, Stephen Rubin said, “It is with a measure of gratification, during this particularly extraordinary time for us all, that we can look back at the solid way in which the Pentland Centre has planted its roots and begun to flourish.

"I hope that the Pentland Centre has now become an integral part of Lancaster University and can look forward to many years of productive research and collaboration helping to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.”

[Image at top of page: Stephen Rubin, used with permission of Pentland Group plc]