Further study in Bristol, under Lant Carpenter, and at the University of Edinburgh was interspersed with experience in the family firm and completed by the, then obligatory, Grand Tour.
Already more interested in the consequences of wealth rather than its creation, in 1830 and 1831 he gave lectures on scientific subjects to the workers at Quarry Bank.
On his father's retirement in 1832, he took over management of Lowerhouse Mill in Bollington, Cheshire and used it as a basis for further social experimentation.
In consequence, Greg suffered from a nervous breakdown and retired to his Bollington home, The Mount.
Thereon, he restricted his philanthropy to scientific lectures for the workers of Macclesfield, becoming president of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.