The Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business, a collaborative research centre built on a longstanding partnership between Lloyds Banking Group and the University of Birmingham, has been making waves in the business and academic worlds.

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Responsible Business is key to Birmingham Business School’s strategy, a plan which sets out to transform the school into a sustainable and responsible business in its own right and ensuring the next generations of business leaders understand and act with responsible business values. The Centre is at the heart of this plan, combining leading research in this area with strong business connections with some of the globe’s foremost sustainable organisations. The Centre has co-created tools to ensure businesses can track their alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, has embarked on a mission to embed responsibility in business education and is leading the development of new technologies and AI to help pave the way towards a more responsible future.

Lloyds Banking Group’s latest Annual Report describes the Centre as an initiative which “combines research with business, exploring how all businesses can work in an ever more responsible and ethical manner”.  The report adds that the Centre “will have impacts across a range of industries, benefitting the entire economy”.

The Centre’s inclusion in the report features Antonio Horta-Osorio, Group Chief Executive of Lloyds Banking Group, officially opening the Centre in 2018. Antonio added his thoughts on responsible business within Lloyds Banking Group to the Annual Report, commenting that Lloyds recognises their “responsibility to help address the economic, social and environmental challenges that the UK faces”.

Professor Ian Thomson, Centre Director, rounded off the feature with a poignant comment on the past successes and future path of the Centre:

“We are in the early stages of this exciting collaboration between Lloyds Banking Group and the University of Birmingham. Moving from an initial idea, to challenge-centred research and engagement, exploring how businesses can be ‘rewired responsibly’ to inform, shape and energise Responsible Business. It’s a unique opportunity to explore best practice, and inform the evolution of responsible business decision making, underpinning Lloyds Banking Group’s pioneering initiative, ‘Helping Britain Prosper’. It has been some journey so far, laying down the foundations for future success”.