Jan Vang
Global sustainability Expert - Professor, Ph.D.
Jan is a leading global expert in creating sustainable Global Innovation and Production Systems and getting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implemented in the global production systems. He is a Full Professor of Innovation and Management at the University of Southern Denmark, where he is also heading the research group Global Sustainable Production. He and his research group are engaged in both basic and applied research. What matters to him is that the research contributes to solving pressing issues related to global sustainable production and getting companies and other organisations to implement the SGDs consistently.
He is a strong advocate of embracing participatory approaches when solving complex problems related to designing and implementing solutions to sustainability challenges in global innovation and production systems. He uses unique participatory approaches mobilising the appropriate resources and knowledge distributed in companies, organisations, online communities, and local neighbourhoods. He believes that participatory methods based on top-down approaches work when companies are embarking on journeys hopefully ending in becoming fully sustainable. He designs participatory processes allowing firms and other organisations to be partners in co-creating sustainability solutions. He is fond of introducing new creative participatory techniques, creating protected innovative spaces, and introducing Value Sensitive Design to organisations.
He proposes that participatory processes need to be guided by insights from innovation/design studies, operations and supply chain management and organisational behaviour. Without this combination, solutions typically become either unrealistic, limited in ambitions or not accepted by the companies’ stakeholders. The idea behind his research and consulting activities is to identify areas where new innovations, productivity improvements and sustainability go hand in hand.
His insights are founded on solid knowledge. For more than 20 years, he has worked with companies, governments, NGOs and trade unions in Europe and Asia. He has been running a research project, doing consultancy, and undertaking evaluations and training activities in countless countries. Currently, he is running large research projects on global sustainable innovation and production in Myanmar and Bangladesh while also providing leadership training and training to shop-floor sustainability experts.
He is a recognised communicator – possibly because he worked as a journalist before returning to academia - and represents the university on numerous occasions. He is one of ten university researchers selected to drive forward his university’s SDG research. His section has been shortlisted for the university’s SDG award. He organises SDG talks, creates SDG media materials, teaches global sustainable production and SDGs at bachelors, masters, and PhD levels, and manages electives and summer schools about SDGs and global production systems.
When he is not engaged in designing new participatory processes, he travels around the world seeking new inspiration or relaxing in his second home country, Italy. When the weather permits, you’ll also find him running in the streets of Copenhagen or playing tennis.