Meet the Team

Centre Director

Pentland Centre Director Professor Jan Bebbington focuses on issues that emerge at the intersections between sustainable development concerns and accounting scholarship and has published on topics such the Sustainable Development Goals; sustainability science; motivations and rationales for standalone reporting; carbon accounting; sustainability assessment and accounting education.

Jan is also involved in a long-term collaboration between ecologists and sustainability scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at the University of Stockholm that aims to provide knowledge to a practice-based cohort of seafood companies who are seeking to actively contribute to ocean stewardship (focusing on SDG 14 – Life Below the Water). The project is yielding insight into the differences between accountability and stewardship as well as the issues in establishing organisational control over supply chains and reporting meaningfully on performance.

Alongside her academic work, Jan has also made substantive contributions to the practice and policy communities in a variety of roles including, for example, being the Vice Chair (Scotland) of the Sustainable Development Commission from 2006 to 2011. The role of the Commission (a part of the UK Government) was to promote sustainable development across the UK and all sectors of society, particularly within Government. A more recent practice engagement is her membership (since 2013) of Scottish and Southern Energy’s Sustainable Development Fund panel, which supports community projects across regions in Scotland where SSE has renewable generation assets. In 2018 the Royal Scottish Geographical Society awarded Jan an Honorary Fellowship.