The Trailblazers report opens our conversation with 10 sustainability leaders on organizations' actions towards more sustainable futures.

In brief:

• Are we as an organization moving fast and effectively enough to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C?
• How is our company culture performing in innovating and building more sustainable futures?
• Are we internally and externally connecting the 'why', the 'how', and the 'who' for more sustainable outcomes across our value chain?

After three years of rattling events, we are overwhelmed by change. Change that has affected our lives in all aspects and left no stone unturned. Change that is so unprecedented, the Collins Dictionary labelled 2022 as the year of ‘permacrisis’ — “an extended period of instability and insecurity”.

In moments when our lives are shaken by crises of extraordinary scale such as global warming, we are reminded of how little we can control when responding in the moment. We become more aware of how complex life can be with the twists, the turns and the shock waves that disrupt and transform economic and ecological systems. As we come to terms with the overwhelming battle to limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C as defined in the United Nations Paris Agreement, it helps to be reminded how much we can control proactively today. Our actions and decisions now, are what shape the outcomes of tomorrow.

Inspired by a sense of hope, the belief that a more sustainable future can indeed be achieved, we set out to discover the trailblazers who are already building this future in the consumer goods and retail segment. We sat down with ten sustainability leaders who do not only settle for reporting but also pioneer the trail through these unsettling times of constant change towards a more responsible future. This report distils our discussions with whom we call the Trailblazers of Sustainability, and you are reading our inaugural edition.

You may wonder why focus on Finland — how is a small nation of 5,5 million people trailblazing? According to Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 2021 global study, Finland ranks 7th amongst high-income economies funding innovation and has been in the Top 10 since 2017. When VCs were asked on portfolio company investment plans, Finland is looking to invest the greatest amount in sustainability amongst Nordic countries says a nordics.vc study. Additionally, our chosen trailblazing companies are globally rewarded and noted companies, including Posti – a logistics company operating in the Nordics, the Baltics and Poland – setting a milestone by becoming the first company globally in its sector to gain Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) approval to its net-zero goals. To top it all off, Finland as a country has a highly ambitious goal of becoming carbon-neutral and the first fossil-free welfare society by 2035. To demonstrate how companies are already paving the way towards the 2035 goal and a greener future globally, we are showcasing some of these pioneering actions by letting the people defining, building and driving these initiatives to be a voice for the new era of a more sustainable business that we are entering in.

Going in-depth with sustainability leaders

The report is a result of a design research. To us as designers and as human-science practitioners, there is nothing more compelling than learning from people. And as overcoming the impacts of climate change at times feels like an unachievable dream of a future, sugar-coated with commercial keywords, we wanted to hear the untold stories of what is actually happening in organizations today regarding sustainability. We recognize this report is not exhaustive but created to provide a window of inspiration based on the conversations we had exploring what are the drivers impacting sustainability in consumer goods and retail businesses today, how are companies taking action, and what exactly motivates the trailblazers to go the extra mile to push businesses to act beyond compliance. 

We hope this report lights up future confidence in you, inspires organisational sustainability discussion and encourages firms to act based on these real-life examples.