Operating in a world in transition
Climate change and the degradation of natural systems remain among the defining challenges of our time, contributing to more frequent extreme weather events and increasing pressure on resources, infrastructure, and communities worldwide. Across many societies, rising living costs and persistent social inequalities continue to affect people’s financial security, well-being, and access to opportunities. More than ever, business are expected to play a broader role in contributing to resilience, stability, and long-term value creation.
These developments are not distant trends; they are part of the everyday reality for our customers, co-workers, partners, and the communities we are part of. They influence how people live, what they value, and what they expect from businesses like ours. They also shape the environment in which we operate, affecting everything from costs and access to resources to regulatory requirements, customer expectations, and long-term business resilience.
A fundamental part of our sustainability and financial journey is to continue developing businesses and business models that create long-term value and contribute to a stable, resilient and relevant Group. In a changing world, shaped by evolving customer needs, market dynamics, regulatory expectations and sustainability challenges, our ability to adapt is essential.
Sustainability is about taking responsibility for how we impact the world around us. But it is just as much about understanding how the world around us impacts our businesses. Through our double materiality assessment and our work with impacts, risks and opportunities, we strengthen our understanding of what matters most — both for our stakeholders and for the long-term success of our business. This helps us identify where we need to focus, where we need to build resilience, and where challenges can be transformed into opportunities. We have just launched our new Sustainability direction that guides us on the way and our prioritised topics have been organised under our three focus areas; Climate, Nature & Circularity; Healthy & Sustainable Living and Fair & Inclusive.
More importantly, sustainability is about ensuring that our business models are sustainable over time. Business models that help us adapt to change, remain innovative and entrepreneurial, and identify new opportunities, new relevance and new ways of creating value for customers and society.
Building robustness does not mean standing still. It means creating a diversified and agile foundation that enables us to respond to change, while continuing to deliver value today and in the future. It means daring to try, daring to rethink, and daring to evolve together with the changing world around us.
For us, scale also matters. When we reach many people, we have the possibility to create real impact and meaningful change at scale. At the same time, we build from a strong foundation. Even if parts of our business models need to evolve and be adjusted for the future, our core values and long-term perspective give us something valuable to build on.
Our focus is therefore to build a business that is resilient by design: able to withstand external pressures, adapt to new circumstances, and seize opportunities that support sustainable growth. This is key to ensuring that we continue to create value for our customers, co-workers, partners and owners — while contributing positively to the societies in which we operate.
Kajsa Holst
Group Head of Sustainability, Ikano Group