Sustainability Leadership

A Swedish Approach to Transforming Your Company, Your Industry and the World

By: Henrik Henriksson, Elaine Weidman Grunewald, Johan Rockström - foreword

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

As CEOs and business leaders navigate a world of complex global challenges, sustainability is no longer optional but a business imperative. In this book, two sustainability leaders with decades of experience - Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Scania, and Elaine Weidman Grunewald, cofounder of the AI Sustainability Center and former chief sustainability and public affairs officer at Ericsson - offer a simple but powerful three-step model for leading an organization on a sustainability transformation journey that aims at big, audacious, world-changing goals.

Honest about the dilemmas but bullish on the opportunities, the authors advise leaders on how to accelerate sustainability in their organizations told through a Swedish lens, where the country's values and culture permeate the boardroom and the C-suite, bringing a unique clarity and conviction to leading with integrity.

In practical insights gleaned from the authors' own experience, the book takes leaders through the three phases of sustainability leadership: from establishing a solid foundation rooted in purpose, culture, values, principles and consistent, credible leadership, to integrating sustainability into the core business, and then to executing a vision that not only shifts the direction of the company but can change an entire industry and even the world.

©2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG (P)2021 Gildan Media

We need more books like this!

This was very inspiring with great specific examples. I enjoyed the stories about Sweden culture naturally adopting changes. These best case scenarios offer context for what success can look like. It’s helpful to learn ideas for transformation that generates financial and Sustainability results.

Interesting, challenging but lacks scalability

Begins by linking the need for change, to the fact that the world IS suffering from a climate emergency as the key to the whole book.
If it had started with, his belief is, or he supports the theory, it would be more palatable.
But there are many opposing views on our climate and this approach is too totalitarian.
As a champion of sustainability in my work I see the need for sustainability not because of a climate emergency but as a need to live in balance with our needs and our planet.
The stories are very focused on three or four main companies with specific business types.
Whilst the book has the right type of existentialism that can and should be applied to our environment, I found the focus limited in its innovative tools which was a shame.
In all I gave this book three stars because much of the discussion is important but it just lacks scalability. It references so many groups and billionaire programs but Leadership should be about the examples every day people can do.

A pdf with the pictures is missing

The audio mentions several figures throughout the book, but there is no complementary pdf for you to see it… but I really enjoyed the book and a lot of examples of what companies did towards sustainability.

Solid advice on Sustainability Leadership

Good insight on aligning your organization’s values with Sustainability in mind. The companies that do so will come out on top in the not-too-long run. The narrator was a bit difficult to listen to, as nearly every sentence (or so it seemed) was intoned the same way.