Sustainable Futures Global (SFG), is a group of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world. Led by Professor Mia Perry from the University of Glasgow, they work together to tackle sustainability challenges. SFG has teams in Scotland, Germany, Botswana, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda. Their goal is to bring people together to solve global problems in fair and creative ways.
SFG started as a university project, bringing together experts who wanted to make a real difference in sustainability. But they faced a big challenge: how could they turn their academic network into a proper organisation that could make lasting change, and how could they expand that work even further across the globe?
The Problem
While SFG had lots of knowledge and connections around the world, they weren’t set up to work like a business. They needed to change from a group of volunteers into a proper company that could support itself. This meant figuring out how to make money without losing sight of their values. They also had to work out the legal side of things, especially as they had started at a university.
SFG wanted to keep doing important work, like their project looking at cooking practices in Bangladesh and Malawi. But they needed to find a way to pay for this work and grow it, without losing touch with the local communities they were helping.
The Solution
This is where ISEO stepped in to help. The ISEO delivery partners – CEIS and The Challenges Group – worked with SFG to understand what made them special and how they could turn this into a business that still matched their values.
ISEO helped SFG plan for the future, showing them how to talk about their work in a way that would appeal to funders and partners. ISEO’s legal partners – Morton Fraser MacRoberts – guided SFG through the process of becoming a Community Interest Company, a social enterprise structure which is designed for businesses that want to help their community.
A key part of ISEO’s work is working alongside each University’s IP & Commercialisation teams to support the academic staff members to realise an enterprising vision for their research. ISEO assisted SFG in discussions with the University of Glasgow to figure out how the new company would fit within the University’s commercialisation portfolio and what type of ongoing relationship would be best for the University and the academic staff members.
The ISEO partners also helped SFG think about how they could generate income from their expertise without compromising their ethics. For example, they looked at how SFG could grow projects like ‘Whose Crisis?’, which shares the stories of African communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The next step for SFG was to seek investment to enable the launch and growth of the new social enterprise. This led to them securing investment from The Ventures Lab, a programme run by The Challenges Group which provides expert advice, up to £100,000 in patient capital and crucial assistance with back-office processes.
The Outcome
Thanks to the help of the ISEO partners, SFG officially became a Community Interest Company on 26 September 2023. A huge moment, and one that demonstrated how SFG had successfully transformed from a university project into a proper social enterprise.
Now, SFG offers a range of services. They give advice, do research, provide training, and create tools to help with sustainability. They can now run bigger projects across different countries, like their online course about resources and sustainability, which involves universities in four countries.
The funding from The Ventures Lab by The Challenges Group, along with its ongoing support, has given SFG the chance to grow and try new things. They’re now in a much better position to make a real difference in communities around the world.
Testimonial
Professor Mia Perry from SFG said: “ISEO’s help was crucial. We knew a lot about sustainability, but we didn’t know how to run a business. The ISEO partners showed us how we could become a social enterprise without losing sight of why we started this work in the first place. They made a complicated process feel manageable.”
SFG’s story shows how the right support can help turn big ideas into real-world change. They’ve not only transformed themselves but have also created a model for how academic expertise can make a lasting difference in the world.
