Senior Advisor, ZeroMission

Hello Ellinor, senior advisor at ZeroMission! Could you tell us a little about your background?

Fundamentally, I am a very values-driven person; I CANNOT live in conflict with my values. It makes me feel uncomfortable.

One example of when this happened was during my first job in the second half of the 1990s. I worked in the sales department at ASG—which later became DHL—and pretty quickly started working with customers' environmental efforts. After a while, I felt that I couldn't work with customers who had high emissions but weren't trying to do anything about it, so when a position as environmental coordinator came up, I applied for it. Later, my area of work broadened from just the environment to CSR and eventually sustainability.

After a while, I felt like a tiny cog in a giant machine, in an organization with over 200,000 employees, where I didn't feel like I was making any difference. I moved on and ended up working in logistics at J.Lindeberg.

If I didn't feel like I was making a difference before, it really started to bother me during my time at J.Lindeberg. Sometimes the process from design to production was delayed, which meant we had to fly products home from Asia. When a friend asked me if I wanted to get involved with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation in the evenings, it was like a light bulb went off in my head: I can't spend eight hours a day doing things that go against my values. It was 2005 when I quit J.Lindeberg to start my own business. I started at U&We, and later moved on to ZeroMission.

Inspired by sustainability

You practice what you preach. International train travel is now "in," but you have been taking your family to the Alps by train every year since your now-adult children were small. What drives you?

When I was little, I was a member of Mulle, and after that I joined the Scouts. So being out in nature, taking care of it, and leaving it in the same condition as you found it is a given for me. It also helps that my husband and I share the same values.

I don't want to be other people's environmental conscience. Even though it's easy to become one. But if I can be a source of inspiration, that's okay. I find it hard to understand how people can turn a blind eye to how their actions negatively affect the climate, but I would never say that outright. So hopefully, my way of doing things can inspire others. I believe more in positive "nudges."

Started ZeroMission

You are also one of ZeroMission's four founders. What are you most proud of during ZeroMission 20 years of ZeroMission ?

One aspect is having created a company that has provided employment opportunities for so many people. I did not anticipate this as an entrepreneur, and it is something I find very rewarding. Seeing people grow within the organization is very fulfilling for me.

The second is to see the impact that ZeroMission projects have had over time and continue to have. Anyone who plants a tree has not done so in vain. It's not that I'm a technology denier, but sometimes I feel that we need to protect the methods we already have, with nature-based climate solutions.

The year ZeroMission a Gazelle company (2021) is also an exciting milestone. Celebrating it together was a big deal.

30 years as a sustainability strategist

You have been working with corporate sustainability since 1997. Is there anything that surprises you?

I don't know if it surprises me or makes me sad, but I find it astonishing that environmental issues can be so polarized in certain circles. This is also reflected in the situation that has arisen around CSRD. Strong legislation can be an important tool, but it must not become a back-and-forth battle, as it has now.

Ever since I started working with U&We, I have seen the power of environmental issues. For me, it has always been about resource efficiency – being able to do more with less. You could call me a green "yuppie" who believes in market forces and that companies can do good. And that is what we are seeing. We have a business community that wants clear rules, and legislation that lays a good foundation is a prerequisite, but there must be goodwill behind it. Companies need to be able to see the business case for sustainability.

It is also incredibly sad that we have not made more progress. I am thinking of the Millennium Development Goals, which we were supposed to have achieved by 2015. Now, instead, 2030 is our target year. That could make me feel gloomy, but I am fundamentally a positive person. We are working on the issue, and that is why I can still feel hopeful that we are moving forward.

What would you like to say to boards of directors and business leaders in the business community?

In short, if you want to be part of tomorrow, keep up with today. If you don't tackle climate issues, you will lose business. You will become a less attractive player in the market and will find it difficult to obtain raw materials, attract labor, and attract investment, among other things, if you don't address these issues.

What do you do to instill hope in yourself and others around you?

It's all about where you look. You can choose to watch the news and only see all the misery happening in the world. But you can also turn your gaze elsewhere. There are people all over the world who want to do something different, who live in other ways. I guess I'm just a little bit naively optimistic. Somehow, you just have to keep plugging away. And in the short term, I'm hopeful and hoping for a change of government in the fall elections.

To find hope and new influences, I also enjoy traveling by train. Traveling is inspiring. The course of the year is also equally hopeful every year. A new spring is coming, and with it, new things will grow. Perhaps it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.