Al Gore’s striking climate slideshow outlining how rising temperatures would wreak havoc on society inspired a generation of activists. Jesper Brodin’s striking climate presentation outlining how a company can grow profit while cutting its carbon emissions has helped inspire a generation of CEOs.
Before stepping down last fall, the former CEO of Ingka Group, the primary operator of Ikea stores, took the presentation on the road to make the case to executives that addressing climate change doesn’t require sacrificing growth. From 2016 to 2024, the Ingka Group says, its revenue grew nearly 24% while its emissions declined by 30%. This achievement was placed prominently in his slideshow displayed at the 2025 World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting. At the core of the pitch made to attendees: being climate smart can save your company money.
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“If you’re smart with resources,” he says, “you’re essentially being smart with money.”
Brodin began his career at Ikea three decades ago, starting as a purchase manager in the company’s Pakistan operations before moving around the world—and up the corporate ladder. When he took over as CEO in 2017, he was immediately confronted with an urgent threat: the growth of online competition and the need to rethink Ikea for the digital era.
Even in the face of this core business challenge, he made climate and sustainability a priority. Over his tenure, two key pieces sat at the center of his vision: advancing renewable energy and moving to a circular business model that relied less on constantly selling new products and instead on incorporating repair and reuse.
The results are mixed. The renewable-energy push was a runaway success. Not only has the company invested more than $5 billion in dozens of wind farms and solar parks, making it a decarbonization leader, it’s also proved a business case for using renewables. Despite long payback periods at first, costs have come down over time, providing a bulwark against volatile power prices. “At Ikea, the renewable-energy transition has more or less happened,” he says. “Ikea has become a medium-sized utility company today.”
By Brodin’s admission, implementing a circular business model has been much harder. There have been some wins. Take a recycling program that breaks down mattresses to components: the initiative took three years for the investment to pay back; today, it provides the company a welcome alternative to virgin materials as some commodity prices have soared.
Still, growing similar approaches across all parts of the business has proved difficult. Effective recycling requires infrastructure. And infrastructure often requires government support. “When it comes to full circularity, it still needs to happen,” he says of the business. “It’s a bit of a systematic approach.”
It’s in part that refreshing honesty that has made him a notable voice advocating for climate action among his peers on the global stage. CEOs tend to tread carefully. A few years ago, the C-suite at global companies worried they might be called out for not doing enough or for “greenwashing”—talking a big sustainability game but not living up to their commitments. Today, they worry that their sustainability efforts might put a target on their back from the Trump Administration. “I’m more afraid of silence than greenwashing,” says Brodin.
And he has been anything but silent. Brodin can be spotted onstage making the case for private-sector climate action—and behind closed doors he’s pitching his colleagues.
A key part of that effort was his tenure chairing the WEF’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders from 2020 to 2025. He was skeptical of the alliance when he first became CEO. The group’s goals were too ambiguous, he says now, and the system of measurement was too weak. After hearing his complaints, the WEF asked him to chair the council and help the group chart a more legitimate course. While much work remains to be done, those companies have delivered. In the past three years, the 130-plus member companies have collectively grown revenue by around 20% while their emissions have fallen by 10%. “The business case tends to improve as you step into transformation,” he says.And yet Brodin realizes that these are challenging times for CEOs who have to navigate different markets moving in different directions at different speeds. Now, a few months out of Ikea, he’s working solo to advise CEOs on how they can continue to put climate at the center of their business. His advice? Focus on where the economy is going next. “One of the most dangerous things you can do is be left on the station when others are on the train ride,” he says. “Even if it’s bumpy.”
Brodin is the former CEO of Ingka Group.
