Sweden’s Secret Sauce
Discover some of the Swedish secrets to successful progressive actions on corporate sustainability leadership.
Sweden may be a small country, but it has long punched above its weight and is well renowned globally for its progressive actions on sustainability, both as a nation and within the business sector.
It consistently places at or near the top in global rankings for innovation (first in Innovation Index 2020 from the EU and second in Global Innovation Index 2020), competitiveness (top of the 2020 Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index), and sustainability (top spot in Sustainable Development Report 2020).
While far from perfect, Sweden is brimming with examples of companies that serve as inspiration as to how to align business strategy to solving problems and making an impact for society. The book features candid interviews with leaders of many of these companies: Scania, Electrolux, SAS, EQT, Investor, Sweco, Telia Company, Kinnevik, Trine, Axel-Johnson, Karma and Northvolt.
During our interviews with many Swedish business leaders, a number of special national qualities surfaced time and time again: balance, equality, and a healthy dose of humility; an outward-facing focus and strong global market mindset; and the ability to think long term and see the big picture. It is a society that prizes nature, bordering almost on religious zeal.
“Together, Henrik and Elaine provide what I consider the most important business advice one can get today—to embed the core business in a culture of sustainability. They do so by representing two of the most important sectors in the transformation to sustainable development, namely decarbonizing the transport sector and making digitalization work for sustainability. This makes the voice of these two business leaders so valuable and timely at a juncture where we must accelerate and scale innovations and solutions toward a prosperous and equitable future for humanity within planetary boundaries.”
— Johan Rockström, Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, University of Potsdam
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“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
Norrsken Foundation receives all proceeds of sales from the book in order to help scale the next generation of purpose-driven companies.