★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Not only do Grunewald and Henriksson demonstrate how sustainability ambitions must be realized through business action, they also show how such business action can be achieved and provide a plan of action for sustainability leadership through concrete and inspirational cases from the Nordics.”
Kristin Skogen Lund
CEO, Schibsted
Sustainability Leadership: A Swedish Approach to Transforming your Company, your Industry and the World
The book is intended as a wake-up call, a chance to rethink how we conduct business. At a time when the private sector has more power and influence than ever before, being a business leader today requires sustainability leadership. Sustainability is not a trend; it is a condition for future business success, and we need to up the game. The question business leaders face is not just why they should act—but how to engage others on the same journey and maximize their impact in creating a more sustainable world.
The keys for unlocking that elusive “how” are presented in the book, replete with practical tools, recommendations, and candid first-hand accounts by Swedish CEOs who share their most important lessons.
These are complemented by case studies describing how companies got it right—or turned themselves around after getting it very, very wrong. The path to sustainability leadership is also illuminated in over 25 interviews with a wide range of business leaders, investors, climate scientists, academics, economists, and other experts.
With this hands-on insider guide, CEOs and C-suite leaders can take sustainability to the next level at a time when exponential, world-changing action is more urgent than ever.
What others are saying about Sustainability Leadership: A Swedish Approach to Transforming Your Company, Your Industry and the World
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Henrik Henriksson and Elaine Weidman Grunewald have issued a stirring call to action that cannot be ignored. The authors provide a roadmap for how companies can define their purpose and live by it—something we need more than ever in these challenging times. The candid stories of how Swedish CEOs have risen to those challenges is inspiring. I urge every business leader to read this book and share it widely among their teams.”
N. Chandrasekaran
Chairman, Tata Sons
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Nordic countries and companies are globally recognized for their sustainability leadership. In their informative new book, Elaine Weidman Grunewald and Henrik Henriksson reveal “the secret sauce” that gives Swedish companies their inherent sustainability advantage. In translating to a global business audience, they offer a powerful three-step leadership model that any CEO or business leader can put in practice wherever they may find themselves in the world. This book provides definitive thinking on sustainability leadership for the twenty-first century—all with a wonderfully distinctive Swedish twist.”
Robert Strand
Executive Director & Lecturer, Center for Responsible Business, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, USA
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“In this valuable book, Elaine Weidman Grunewald and Henrik Henriksson provide an easy to read, inspiring, and practical guide to sustainability leadership. The examples are compelling and show that sustainability is an integral part of the strategy of profitable, successful businesses – and will be even more so going forward.”
Stephanie O’Keefe
CEO, International Women’s Forum
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Sweden has offered the world so many valuable lessons over the years; and this excellent book is the latest contribution - timely and valuable business insight explained with clarity and humility. It reminds us that purposeful leadership is both essential in today’s highly unpredictable, challenging business environment and must be approached with energy, method, and expansive imagination. It should be read by every leader who wishes to eschew incrementalism and confront the most pressing of contemporary questions, namely, how to deliver a step-change in sustainable growth, balancing the interests of all stakeholders without trade-off, compromise or delay.”
Rick Haythornthwaite
Chairman, Mastercard and Xynteo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Sweden is a powerhouse of sustainable industrial transformation. This book describes the management approach behind it. Henrik Henriksson and Elaine Weidman Grunewald invite change-makers in Swedish business to tell their stories. And they tell their own story, not least about Scania, a company that shows how sustainability and profitability can go together. The core message: Global challenges like the climate crisis require clear entrepreneurial values: integrity, responsibility, effectiveness. We have no time to lose!”
Herbert Diess
Chairman of the Board of Management, Volkswagen AG
The CEOs, business and sustainability leaders featured in the book
Mia Brunell Livfors, Axel-Johnson; Jonas Samuelsson, Electrolux; Christian Sinding, EQT; Eva Karlsson, Houdini; Elsa Bernadotte, Chief Operating Officer, Karma; Georgi Ganev, Kinnevik; Peter Carlsson, Northvolt; Rickard Gustafson, SAS Airlines; Åsa Bergman, Sweco; Johan Dennelind, former CEO Telia Company; Sam Manaberi, Trine; Hans Vestberg, Verizon; Mats Granryd, GSMA; Anna Borgstrom, Netclean; Niklas Adalberth, Norrsken Foundation, and Osvald Bjelland, Xynteo. Prominent Swedish business leaders Michael Treschow, former Chairman of the Board of Unilever and Board member, The Wallenberg Foundation, and Jacob Wallenberg, Chair of Investor AB, also contributed. Sustainability experts featured include John Elkington, founder and CEO of Volans; Georg Kell, founding Executive Director of the UN Global Compact and chairman of Arabesque, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University.
Norrsken Foundation receives all proceeds of sales from the book in order to help scale the next generation of purpose-driven companies.